This is Where You Belong

Don’t you just love when a book is really thought provoking? I am reading “This is Where You Belong” by Melody Warnick as part of the Everyday Reading book club.

This book is all about falling in love with your town. I picked this up feeling a little unsure. I love in the town that I grew up in. But, we didn’t really move here by choice. It was move back and live with my parents for a short time, or be homeless. I love living near family. This town is safe and nice and all of that, but I never wanted to move back.

Melody wrote a chapter called “Buy Local” that has really resonated with me. I’ve always loved supporting local business and small shops, but never really put much thought into it. When you shop at a big box store, most of the money you spend doesn’t stay in your area. It climbs up the corporate ladder and doesn’t benefit your area at all. When you buy something at a local shop, most of that many stays in your town. The tax dollars improve your roads and give you better schools. You are supporting someone that you get to know very well.

A day or two after reading this chapter, we needed to get our oil changed. I called the local auto shops. The first one was completely booked. The next one squeezed me in between two appointments. I was so grateful. He even let me know that one of our other fluids was a little low, and that he’d order it and would top it off for me once it came in.

We have a candy shop in town that the girls and I stop in when we are going for walks. One day that we stopped in, I was buying some things for my mom who had just had knee replacement surgery. Addison told the woman behind the counter what we were doing. This lady put colorful ribbons on everything and bright tissue paper to make it look like a present. It may not seem like a big deal, but it meant the world to me.

Small businesses care. They want your business. They will get to know you. They will know your likes and dislikes.

I am really enjoying this book. Where we live may not be a permanent address, but I can learn to love it while we are here. I can invest myself in where I am. So can you.

I’ve always had the attitude in the back of my mind of “well, we’ll probably move soon anyway, so why get attached?” While it is true that in youth ministry, it’s common to move more often than most other jobs, that doesn’t mean I need to keep everyone and everything at arms length.

It’s ok to get attached. It’s ok to love where I am for the time being. I love that this book has challenged me and given me tangible ways to love where I am. I encourage you to pick this book up at your library or purchase it and pass it on when you are done! It’s such a great read!

New Site

Hi, friends! I’ve been a little silent over here. That’s because I have my own website and have been working on it! I am still learning, and it is far from perfect. I’ve been too afraid to share that on here. So, I am stepping out in bravery to invite you to my new imperfect home on the web.

Four Arrows Farmhouse

 

That does not mean that we are living in a farm house. No matter where we live, we desire to live in a certain way– one that embodies the feelings that you get when you think of a farm house..

 

I’d love, love, love for you to follow along and join me over there! Thank you for always being supportive of me and my dreams!

Affordable Valentine Gift Ideas

heart pajamas // temporary tattoos // stickers // twinkle lights // sleep sack // silk scarf // glass water bottle // stacking blocks game // teether //

Some fun. Some silly. Some useful. All cute!

Eat What You Love Book Tour

The main event! If you missed yesterday’s post, Scott and I went to Chicago to go to Danielle Walker’s cookbook tour. It was what I wanted for Christmas, and it was so worth it to get an experience over stuff.

We arrived before the doors opened. I’m glad we did because the line very quickly got super long. The caterers started carrying trays of food out to us. We were able to sample some of the recipes from her cookbook. Butterscotch pudding, sweet potato fries, and cauliflower hummus with carrot chips were handed out. I wanted to rip all of the sweet potato fries off of every tray that passed me. YUM! They were served with this BBQ sauce, which is also incredible.

When we got to enter the venue, my jaw dropped. It was held at Artifact Events, and so beautiful.

Her guest for the night was Alex. I honestly know nothing about her, but she was really stinking hilarious and she cooks. We were belly laughing through a good portion of the evening.

Danielle’s story is so inspiring. You can go read it here, because she will tell it so much better than I ever would. She has been able to get her autoiummine disease under control through food. She has gone off all of her medicines and hasn’t been hospitalized in so many years.

You guys, food matters! FOOD. MATTERS.

Several years ago, my doctor started looking into my thyroid. It was enlarged, and due to so many of my symptoms, she had me go for an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a texture on my thyroid which she said meant that eventually it was going to shut down and stop working. She wanted to treat me for Hashimoto’s disease by suppressing my thyroid until it stopped functioning on its own. I wasn’t a fan of this because all of my numbers were great on my blood work. I asked if I could try changing my diet instead. She allowed it, thankfully. I started following the autoimmune protocol very strictly. After the initial withdraw symptoms subsided, I felt really great. However, I was breastfeeding and ended up in the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. The doctors rushed me back and hooked me up to heart monitors to see what was happening because my heart rate was dangerously high. They determined that my body had gone into starvation mode. Somehow even though I was eating a TON of food, I still wasn’t consuming enough calories. I quit doing the AIP, and went back to feeling yucky and discouraged.

I’ve seen several doctors since then who refuse to diagnose because my blood work still looks fine– though my numbers have shifted more and more. I get it. I have every symptom of the disease and the appearance of my thyroid shows its coming. So, I have determined that I am going to just eat the way I knew I needed to. Maybe I can heal my body and never have to be diagnosed.

The book tour was so great. We both left feeling really inspired. Doctors always say that food doesn’t matter. But, it does. It matters so much.

We left with some really great swag bags full of some of my favorite foods. We got premium tickets, because that was all that was left. They paid for themselves with all of the goodies we took home. Everyone that attends gets an autographed copy of the cookbook, which is amazing.

If there is a tour stop near you, I strongly encourage you to go! Even if you don’t suffer from any food intolerances/allergies/autoimmune disease, it can help you love on a friend or family member who does. Plus, you get to eat delicious food and be so inspired.

Quick Trip to Chicago & Survival Guide

Last month, Danielle Walker released her newest cookbook called Eat What You Love. I’m a big fan of hers, and love her story of healing through food. Seriously, if you don’t have the book, you should get it ASAP.

She announced that she was going to be doing a book tour and I wanted tickets so badly. We live close enough to one of the cities that we could actually go to something like this. Scott got me tickets for Christmas, and we’ve been excitedly planning a trip ever since. Experiences, not stuff!

There are a ton of Amtrak stations not too far from us, so we chose the one with the cheapest tickets. On Monday, our train going to Chicago was an hour and a half late. We sat in a crowded terminal for so long, all while I felt super anxious. I don’t like crowds or cities, so the whole thing was making me more nervous than it should. But, I was so excited for a trip with just my husband that I was willing to be terrified. Once we finally boarded, I felt like I could relax some.

The train ride was beautiful. Snow covered cornfields as far as the eye could see. Gotta love Illinois. It only took a couple of hours to arrive in Chicago, and we got to walk through Union Station. We rented a hotel within walking distance– we stayed at the Holiday Inn. If you are planning a trip and wanting to stay in downtown, I would recommend it. It’s walking distance to Union Station and right next to one of the L stops. Anyway, we stepped out of Union Station and it was immediate pain. Y’all, it was SO COLD. Bitter cold. Painful cold. What in the world, Chicago? Uncool.

We had a little time to kill before the event, so we rode the L to the Michigan Ave. area. The whole city is still decorated for Christmas, and completely beautiful. We ate an early dinner (or late lunch?) and walked to the American Girl store. It was beautiful! I love American Girl dolls, and always looked forward to getting the catalog in the mail. Now, my daughters are exactly the same way. I took a ton of pictures so that I could show the kids when we got home. We picked up a book for each of them as a souvenir. #booksforlife

We walked around a few other stores, including Anthropologie. I probably left a lot of drool on their floor. My goodness, it was stunning. The volcano candle smells like heaven. We hopped on another L and after a transfer or two, we made it to the event center.

The night was a blast, but I want to write a separate post just for the book tour. It was worth it! I’ll leave it at that for now.

Tuesday, our train was scheduled to leave at 4. We were a little concerned because Chicago was under a winter weather advisory. We didn’t want to get stuck in Chicago. Well, another day would have been nice, but would have caused a lot of problems. ha! We couldn’t do anything about it, because our train was the only one left that would get us home. We made a day of it and checked out of the hotel and walked more of the city.

We walked/slipped all through the magnificent mile with our backpacks on our backs. We found Dylan’s Candy Shop, which I didn’t know was such a big deal. We picked some fun flavors to try (bacon!) and headed to Union Station to eat dinner before getting on the train. They called us to board as soon as we had our pizza and my green juice in hand.

We made it home just in time to put the girls in bed. It was such a fun trip.

Some things to note:
We were on a budget. If you are going to be also, here are some tips: I packed some coffee packets and my hydroflask coffee mug so that we wouldn’t have to buy any expensive coffee. I was also able to fill it with water for a drink. We ate at restaurants we knew would be cheap so that we wouldn’t have a surprise expensive food bill. This was a bummer because we like to try new places when we travel. But, we had to make an exception this time. Just because you are walking through beautiful stores does not mean you have to buy things. Just enjoy the experience. Buy the day pass for the metro if you are flying in or riding the train. It was $20 for the two of us, and we could ride as many times as we needed or wanted to. This allowed us to not have to pay for a taxi.

Dress. Warm. We both forgot to bring a scarf, and our faces were painfully frozen from the bitter cold and freezing rain. Chapped lips and cheeks are miserable. Wear boots and layers. You will not regret it. I’ve never been so thankful for our wool socks.

We knew that we would have to carry everything we packed at some point, so we packed as light as possible. Walking the city is work enough without having fifty pounds of luggage to take with you everywhere.

Here’s what I wore to stay warm/dry:
backpack 
yellow hat (yellow is sold out. It’s double lined and kept my head warm even when the hat was wet.)
sweater blazer
chambray shirt
coat (similar)
boots
socks
Scott’s hat

Here’s what I packed so we could stay healthy:
thieves oil (rolled on our feet morning and night.)
immupro
Hand sanitizer— obviously
Amazing Grass greens (I put these in my water for extra nutrition.)
Valor— this helped me not have a complete panic attack from anxiety..
Probiotics
Multi-Vitamin

Weekend Links

**A special thanks to Heather Stillufsen for letting me use this image! Her art is my favorite, so go check her out. I have this planner, and love that I can frame her art when I’m done with it!

We are gearing up for another big snow storm around here. Luckily, we don’t have to go anywhere tonight or tomorrow, so we will just snuggle up and enjoy the forced rest.

Scott and I are heading to Chicago next week for the Eat What you Love book tour. If you haven’t bought this cookbook yet, you should. It’s my FAVORITE.

The Re-Definition of Superwoman

This video had me sobbing. So beautiful and inspiring.

Dear Special Needs Mom– so though provoking and needed. Meg is one of my favorites to follow on Instagram.

I am so excited about this book video intro. (Pre-order here)

I’ve been using these to get some extra greens in my diet this year. They taste surprisingly yummy.

Simplify your Mornings– this is so good, even if you aren’t trying to get kids out the door early.

Marie Kondo Kitchen Tips– How cozy is Brooke’s kitchen?!

I hope that you all stay safe and warm! Happy weekend, friends!

Brave

Last year, I bought a devotional called 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs. I’d pick it up here and there, but honestly never dove in. At the end of last year, Annie challenged all of us to start it on January 1st. Start the year off bravely!

I have really enjoyed consistently doing it. She obviously talks about bravery every day. I love the challenge. I don’t think of myself as a brave person. In fact, I often think of myself as a chicken– honestly, most people probably do.

One day, the challenge was to take what God has put in you, and do it. Do the thing that you are passionate about and do it without fear. I thought, I’m not brave. I’ll never do that.

But, then, I thought about it. After eight years of being a stay-at-home mom, I got a part time job at the library. I had to learn something new. Honestly, it was a LOT of new things to learn. So much more than I expected. Just filling out an application and sending my resume took a huge amount of bravery. Saying YES took a lot of bravery.

I took the brave and crazy step to seek out the farm house. I could have tucked away what this woman told me, and never pursued it. But, I chased a dream, and it may pay off.

Then, there is this blog. This blog takes bravery. To put down my thoughts and share them with the world takes a lot of courage. I love writing. God has put this desire and longing in my heart, and I decided to really run with it this year. This website is MINE. It was terrifying to take the step to buy a domain. Want to know a secret? My husband and ONE other person know that this blog exists. I keep hiding it, afraid to share that I took a HUGE plunge.

There are so many things that I have done that took bravery. I am not brave on my own. Jesus is the source of any courage that I have. My steps may be a little shaky, but I am taking them.

What do you need to do? What is the step towards bravery that you need to take? I really encourage you to pick up this book and do the 100 days with us. It’s not too late to catch up!

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KiwiCo- an Unsponsored Review

If you are on social media at all, you have probably seen tons of sponsored posts reviewing the Kiwi crates for kids. I was really intrigued when I saw them, and decided to try it out.

If you are unfamiliar with KiwiCo, it is a monthly subscription box full of STEAM activities. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. This is a great way to incorporate these subjects into our homeschool day– and a great way to add in some fun activities for your kiddos even if you don’t homeschool.

For Chloe, age 8, I went with the Kiwi Crate. The Kiwi Crate is for ages 5-8.

With her first box, she built an arcade game. She LOVED it, and was able to figure out a step she missed all on her own. It was so cool to see her engineering this project all by herself. With the next shipment, she created a solar system. This girl loves space, so it was right up her ally. Each of the Kiwi Crates came with one main activity and some kind of game to play. She gave the Kiwi Crate two thumbs up.

For Addi, age 7, we went with the Atlas crate. She loves geography and learning about other countries, so I felt like this was a perfect match. This crate is for ages 6-11.

The Atlas Crate was really cool. She LOVED building a globe. The first box came with a book that you get to create as you receive more crates. The next crate came with activities and games from a specific country. She also go pages to add to her book about Nigeria. She was able to do these activities with very little assistance. She also gave her crate two thumbs up.

For Harper, age 4, we got her the Koala Crate. It was so stinking cute. This crate is ideal for ages 3-4.

With her first box, it was all rainbow themed activities. She was able to make this pillow all by herself. She made a stained glass picture and a rainbow tote bag also. The next box was music themed and she made a xylophone, tambourine, and a ribbon wand. It was so fun to see her creating these things with little to no assistance. She LOVED her box so much that she wanted to keep the actual boxes.

Each box is $19.99 a month. They come automatically shipped to you with everything you need for every project. These are perfect for rainy or snowy days when you are stuck indoors or just need a break from the cold.

I am obsessed. I honestly love this so much. The concept is brilliant. They have boxes for ALL ages. One of them says it is for up to 104 years old.

My only problem is that with three kids, it’s an extra $60 a month. When your budget is tight, this is difficult to afford. If you use this link, you can get $10 off your box. You can pause or cancel your subscription at any time. And, if you have more than one kid, you can purchase one box and share since there’s usually more than one activity.

This post is completely unsponsored, although if KiwiCo wants to sponsor my family I’d be thrilled. haha! We bought our boxes and loved every second of them. The activities have continued to get played with every day, which is huge when you don’t want to be wasteful. Give it a try, and I’ll guess that you will love it!

Big Dreams

If you have been around here for a while, you know that Scott and I dream of one day owning a homestead. It feels like such a far off and impossible dream because of our current circumstances.

I’m going to take you back to late November/ early December. I was working at the library and chatting with one of our patrons. She mentioned that her husband was a farmer. In our talking I mentioned our dream of living on a farm. Her eyes got really big and she told me about a house that they own and rent. They don’t list it as for rent because they don’t want just anyone moving in, but the tenants had just moved out and the house is empty. She told me that if we’d really be interested to drive out and check it out some time. Scott and I drove by, and loved it. But, figured it would be way out of our budget and didn’t really do anything more.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a really rotten day. I was discouraged and going to take a ton of bags of clothes and toys to donate just to get out of the house. Instead, I turned the opposite direction. I drove up to this beautiful farm house and walked around the property. I had permission to do this, so don’t get upset about it.

I walked around and just stood in awe. I have always loved old farm houses. My family used to go riding around a lot when I was a kid. I used to love seeing the farm houses. My mom and I would get sad any time we’d drive by an abandoned one thinking about all of the memories that the house held. Anyway, I was walked back to my car when a truck came down the road and pulled in. It was the farmer himself. I told him who I was and what I was doing there so that he didn’t think I had vandalized his property or anything. His kind face lit up and asked if I wanted to see the inside.

You guys. I was literally fighting tears the whole time. He showed me each room. The house was built around 1860. He build on the front room himself, and put up some walls to make bedrooms in the upstairs. It had all been one big room before. When we were walking back to the door, he asked me what I thought of it. I told him that it was so beautiful, but I didn’t know if it was something we could afford. He told me what he charges for rent. I. Cannot. Handle. It. It’s so low, and he doesn’t feel right raising it even after I told him what most people charge for rent in our town. He was disgusted by that.

I called Scott and fought blubbering like a baby. What are the chances of bumping into this woman and the conversation happening? What are the chances of him just happening to show up to the house while I am there? What are the chances that the rent is going to allow us to live within our means and help us get out of debt? WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!

Scott talked to the farmer on the phone last night, and as long as there aren’t any major repairs that he doesn’t want to pay to fix, we will be moving in some time this year! There’s not an exact time frame, since he hasn’t looked at the house closely yet. March at the earliest. The farmer said that he had thought about just tearing the house down at one point, but the house is still in such good shape.

The house sits on his farm land, so it surrounded by corn/soybean fields and has several large pole barns that house his equipment. It will be loud during planting and harvesting season, I am sure. But, what an incredible thing for the kids to witness. There is a chicken coop by the house. We are planning some raised beds to plant vegetables.

I am speaking this while it is still very early. Something could happen that could cause it all to come crashing down. I know this. We were planning raised beds in the house we currently live in anyway, so we will be planting here or there in the Spring.

On Sunday night, our pastor was talking about prayer and being faithful. He said that so often we expect God to say yes that when he says no, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. (So, remain faithful in those no times.) This is going to sound pessimistic, and show the tole the past several years have taken on my heart. But, I truly have reached the point where I am saying that I don’t know what to do if God says YES to this. I know. That’s terrible. So, I am writing this post and sharing with the world. Will you pray for this situation. I am prepared for something to cause this to not happen. I know that if it falls through, God will have a reason. But, I am praying that it all goes smoothly.

I am so excited and really feel so honored that I got to look at this beautiful home and hear about the history of it. That alone was such a gift. I pray that we get to call this place home. But if not, God is still good