Happy New Year!!

Intimate Oneness :: Fiery Intense Passion :: Lifelong Indestructible Commitment

Growing intimate oneness with my Father; Passion in life to be bold in my relationships, being a disciple and growing my passion for my husband; always continuing to build our marriage commitment.

It's hard to believe that we are already starting a new year! I love fresh beginnings and setting goals! Somehow the years go by too quickly and we often forget about our goals or they get pushed to the wayside with life.




So this year I'm trying a new approach. I am going to set goals that will stretch, encourage and grow me... but instead of making them so big and dreamy I want to make them realistic and reachable!

This year I'm planning to:

- Be more organized with my schedule to make the best of my time


- Memorize 12 passages from the bible
- Do 12 things to grow my relationship with Greg
- Read 12 books
- Blog at least 25 times (I had 50 down and Greg thought that was a little more bite than I can chew.) It's a goal of mine to grow my blog this year though so with that would come posting more! :)


- I'm also working on incorporating more clean eating and menu planning into our lifestyle.




Here's to a fresh new year and a fresh new start.




What are your goals this year and what are your tips and tricks to achieve them?

XOXO

~Jess

2015 Highlights

It's been a year full of love, tears, boating and so much more! Here's just a few highlights I found.

 

In February we purchased our first home and moved in on Greg's birthday which also happened to be the COLDEST day of the entire year and a snow storm. But when we had everything in and the snow came it was the best feeling ever! We love our home and since then have painted about half the inside and have many more painting projects to be worked on! So thankful in God's provision for us.

My dear friend Sara went home to be with Jesus after battling cancer. There were many tears shed but I'm praising Jesus that she is no longer wheel chair bound but running and playing volleyball in the streets of heaven! You are so missed Sara but you will never be forgotten. I can't play volleyball without remembering you. I'm thankful for your spirit and the role you played in my life. You left a beautiful legacy.

We spent most of our summer out on the river. So many fun times wakeboarding, jet skiing, fishing and so much more. I'm thankful for hobbies of my husbands that become quite enjoyable for me as well. He even landed a new trick this summer.

My man doing his thing.

Volunteering as staff with the youth group has been a highlight. Love spending time with them and watching them grow in Him. We are so so blessed to have such a wonderful church!

Annual summer trip to Virginia! One of my favorite places to go and unplug from the world and unwind and of course drink as much sweet tea as I can get my hands on. They have the best!!! This is at Reddish Knob one of the popular lookouts in the Shenadoah Valley!

He finished his BSN in August!! We were both so ever thankful and were ready to celebrate at this awesome castle for dinner! I'm so blessed to have a hard working man to strive to succeed and provide for us. He's incredible!

Last but not least we took a beach trip in December which happened to be record warm! With temp's in the 70's we were able to enjoy shorts and short sleeves in Delaware! Loved our weekend away with friends.

So there's a mini glimpse into what happened in 2015. It hasn't been all rays of sunshine and happiness but it has been a beautiful ride. I'm so grateful that I was able to spend most of it with my better half by my side.

Cheers to 2016!!!

XOXO
~Jess

Hello Homeownership!

It has been a crazy few months! Last fall we started checking into our options of purchasing our own home! We knew that the process can take a while sometimes but God's plan worked out perfectly and faster than we anticipated. Within 2 months we found the one! ( I'm still freaking out a little bit and wandering how it worked out better then either of us could've imagined.)

On settlement day when we finally got the keys!

It feels like a dream! All of these emotions, ideas and projects floating around in my head. We looked at a total of two houses and just knew. It was the perfect location, in a quiet development and had enough space to start a family in someday. 

6 weeks after we made an offer we had settlement and did not waste any time by moving in that weekend. The coldest weekend of the year with record lows and a snowstorm. It was so peaceful that evening snuggling on the couch watching the snowfall and just enjoying OUR home! All in all the whole moving process went very quickly and was pretty low stress thanks to the many many helping hands we had. We were able to get the last of the things in the house as the snow flurries were starting. Praise the Lord!! 

Since then we have settled in and have been starting to add our own personal flare. 

Our first project was the master bedroom. The nasty pale green just had to go! It's repainted and now we are on to the decorating step. I'm super excited and am already loving it. 

Sneak peek of one of the decor pieces that was a must have. 

The other thing we did was a wash line. I have been begging asking for one for a long long time and I'm super excited to finally have one. I love doing laundry so I joyfully hang it out on the line! It's also really special because G built if for me from scratch. He always amazes me with his talents. Now if only I could convince him to build me some furniture. Haha

My goal for this year is to learn how to be more frugal and clean. Preparing for G's upcoming school is not always fun or easy but will be so worth it in the end. Even when he is all done I'm re sure we will still be living frugally. So stay tuned for some of my tips and tricks and what I'm finding that doesn't work.

So blessed that God provided the perfect house for our needs. He is so faithful. 

Overwhelmed?

                                                                              VIA

Is my absolute complete trust in God? There have been a series of events happening locally that make me fidgety about every noise I hear at night. Let's be honest... we all worry and we have many difficult things happening in our lives. But God tells us many many times not to worry.

Do not fret - it leads only to evil. Psalm 37:8b
Fretting over things shows lack of faith of the love God has for us and the control he has over our life. When we dwell on our issues and pains in this life we often times become anxious and/or angry. Concentrating on God and His goodness will help us find peace.

This verse has really convicted me that having a heart filled with worry is just so harmful for our souls. It exhausts us. It makes the smallest mishaps become the biggest hurdles. God's desire is for us to let him handle it. After all, we don't have any control over the things that happen in our lives. I'm so thankful that no matter how many times we fail Him He is always there waiting.

So why is it so hard to not worry? It sounds easy right?! Wrong. It takes time, dedication, discipline and a whole lot of faith. So here's to giving it up to God and letting Him do the hard work for me. Here's to being completely overwhelmed by my Father and filled with His Spirit.

Check out the song below it's my favorite right now.

I know the power of Your Cross
Forgiven and free forever You'll be my God
And all that You've done is so overwhelming

Acts of Love

 

VIA

It's been a crazy first summer of being a housewife.

I've definitely learned to appreciate my mom on a deeper level. She was such a hard worker and majority of the time she had dinner ready or almost ready by the time I got home from work. Not to mention she did laundry and other household duties. Never once did I hear her complain.

I didn't realize how many times I took advantage of that.

Wishing I could take back the times I was frustrated because it was food I didn't really care for or not ready as fast as I wanted it to be.

If you know me... I'm a planner. I like to have an idea of the meals I'm going to be making or a back up that I can do, figure out my evenings of cleaning and other things. However, this summer has just kicked my butt. It might be adjusting to working fulltime and being a wife. Don't get me wrong... I love cooking and taking care of our house it just makes it a little complicated since I sometimes have only an hour to get dinner ready and eaten before Greg heads to work.

This week Greg didn't pick up extra hours. The last couple of weeks he has been working... a lot. So it was a nice and much needed break. That being said he had the whole day off work on a Wednesday. This is a very rare occasion. He had already put in a lot of time doing his homework and preparing for presentations that he decided to bless me.

I went to work thinking of all the things I needed to get done.... not to mention worrying about what I will have to whip up for supper since I had an errand in the evening. Without hesitation I get a text... "I'll make supper tonight". *Whew* one thing less to worry about.

 As I'm on my way home from work I admire that he had taken a lot of time to mow and make sure that the yard looked fantastic. I then go inside to find out he is making lasagna from scratch!! My stomach was growling shortly after. :) About five minutes after I get home, as I'm blabbing on about issues from work and how I brought him some tea he gently stops me and said... "Didn't you notice I cleaned the entire house??!!" I pause and start looking around and start getting all teary eyed. Not only did he clean.. he wiped the baseboards.... swept the basement and mopped all of the floors. The house was spotless.

The time he had invested to doing things for me had made my week!! He then told me I should sit down and read or do whatever I pleased to relax and enjoy. I am so blessed to have a husband who does things he doesn't always like to bless me. He is such an amazing man! Thankful for his continual acts of love!

 

VIA

How I Met My Mr.: Part 1

 

One of our first pictures taken together.

When I was younger I had often pondered and dreamed of how I would eventually meet "the one". I often asked questions like: Would I know right away? Do I know him already? Etc.

Well... it happened just like a lot of people said that it would out of the middle of nowhere! Hahaha if you have heard rumors of this before... it does happen!

I can't remember exactly the first time that I actually met him or saw him (this little detail drives me nuts since I love reminiscing). Most likely the reason for that was because I was interested in one of his best friends.

So after a few months... of seeing each other occasionally and hanging out in group settings becoming friends on fb.... our mutual friend left on a missions trip. He had been the only reason that we had hung out prior so I just assumed that we wouldn't hang out anymore. I was really disappointed about that fact since I was starting to get to know this group of friends better.

Well one lovely summer night a week or so after I was thinking I would not hear from or see them in a while I got a random text. I can't quote it exactly but it was very casual and was something like "Hey what are you up to?". I didn't recognize the number but as I was in the back of the car on my way to the movies with my sister Amy (she has been there for almost all of the major moments in Greg & I's relationship). We put two and two together and freaked out. A lot of excitement sparked into my heart. I mean who doesn't want a very good looking single guy to text them and ask them what they are doing??? Not to mention the fact that they want to plan something to hang out in the near future.

Once we started texting it just grew from there. It went from hanging out a couple times to being very uncommon if we didn't do something together. Chit chatting about life, beliefs and values. Understanding a little more about wakeboarding, cows, BMW's and tractors. Learning that tractors and combines are NOT the same thing. (I still don't really get this because you still drive them around out in the field!!!) 

About two months after we started our close friendship we split ways. I headed south to Brazil for missions and he went to Kansas for college. Little did I know what this would do to our friendship....

Are You Splashing??

 

VIA

I've been reading a book called Finally & Forever by Robin Jones Gunn in the Kate Weldon Series. This verse has been a reoccurring theme throughout the book and I have grown to love it so much that it is easily one of my new favorites.

Take some time to open your favorite version and soak this one in so you may also splash over onto those around you.