My Story

Today I'm getting personal and raw. If you know me personally, you know that I am an open book, I'm not afraid of emotions and tears but I've never written my story out before and laid my heart out for all to see. This is a long post but one I hope you find encouragement in. Grab a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate and get ready to see my heart.  

Beautiful Print by Holly Holt

I was raised in two very loving, but split homes for my whole childhood. My parents divorced when I was

Cooking with Kids

Last year while I was taking my blogging break, I wrote a guest post for Marissa of All In Good Twine for her Mommy Monday segment. If you are looking for tips on how to cook with your kids, head over to check it out.

I am passionate about

Construction Birthday Cake

One of the things Aston always remembers about his birthday parties are his cakes. I love the tradition of making him (and Leia) a special cake or dessert for their birthdays. It's just a tradition I wanted to create for them. So when we decided to do a Construction Birthday theme, I went on a search for cakes to match. My inspiration came from here, here and here. 

Aston's Construction 3rd Birthday Party

In honor of my baby boy's 4th birthday today, here is Aston's 3rd Birthday Party!

Last year almost everything Aston did or talked about were "Big Scoops!" All things heavy machinery and constructions! So when coming up with a plan and theme for his 3rd birthday, it was easy to decide.

We have really started to simplify our parties and although they look like a lot of work, they really aren't too bad. It just takes a little bit of effort.

Aston's birthday happened to fall on the HOTTEST weekend we had all year. It topped out at 115 degree's right before the party so some of the plans changed. The whole party was supposed to take place outside, but due to the heat and not much shade at our new house, we made some adjustments.

What Stirs Your Affections for Christ?

A few weeks back, Gretchen from Life Lived Beautifully posed a question on her Instagram feed.

"Matt Chandler once asked, "What stirs and heightens your affections for Christ?"...Life can get so busy and drive us away from our passions God has woven into our souls. We were made to use our breaths and our days to bring God glory. Through his grace upon amazing grace, we have been given life through Jesus, and sometimes we need the flame in our hearts to be kindled once more."

This struck a chord in my heart. What are my

Favorite Cooking Shows!

I am a lover of good food! Being half Italian and raised surrounded by a loud, boisterous Italian family, every event and everything we do/did revolves around food and being in the kitchen. Food is something we all enjoy (sometimes too much) and this passion for good food has be built within me. I am passionate about cooking home cooked meals and sitting down together as a family for dinner at the end of the day without distractions of TV's, phones or anything else.
I am also passionate about teaching people to cook and that ANYONE has the ability to cook, it just takes some learning and practice, like any other skill, but it can be done. I actually learned most of my skills from watching cooking shows on Food Network and the Cooking Channel. These shows are great for learning skills and tips and tricks in the kitchen. There are also a lot of vloggers out there who show skills as well. So if you are in need of some cooking lessons, just sit and watch some cooking shows and I promise you will learn some skills. Sometimes, they may not explain everything they are doing, but if you watch closely, you can learn knife skills and tricks on how to do things more simply or efficiently. Also, if you know someone who is a great cook, ask them if you can have a few cooking lessons, I'm sure they would be happy to help you!

A few years ago, I wrote this post about my favorite cooking shows at the time. Some are no longer shooting new shows, but I have some new favorites that I thought I'd share with you.
The Kitchen: This is a GREAT show that has a TON of tips and tricks in the kitchen. Max and I learn something often and we both love watching the show. They share great recipes and if you follow my Meal Planning, you will often find a few of their recipes on the list for the month. The personalities of the show are super fun and enjoyable to watch and I promise, you will learn some cool tips and tricks by watching!

September Meal Plan

Eeek! This is the first official Monthly Meal Plan Post since the blog redesign! I'm so excited to share my meal plan with you each month! You can see my method here. You will also be able to find the past meal plans each month on the Meal Planning page along with my how-to method of meal planning! I've created some downloadable, editable tools for you so that you can make it work for yourself :)

I know the month is halfway over but here is what we have had or will be having for dinner this month! Here is

New Blog Tour!!

I am so very excited to be back in this little space! I have been in a time of growth and change in the last two years, which I'll be sharing more with you about soon, but last summer God urged me to take a step back from blogging and get my heart in the right place. I had started this blog for fun with no direction from God. I wasn't living a life fully abandoned to Jesus and wasn't following Him to lead my path. I was making my own plans and trying to put them in place in my own power and it just wasn't working. I felt defeated and disconnected. I was looking with envy at what others were accomplishing and it wasn't going well. My husband, Maxwell, was frustrated and I wasn't in a good place.

So I stepped back. I took a much needed break to get my heart in the right place and prayfully considered this option of coming back to this blog or shutting it down. After much prayer and gaining wisdom and advice from God and my friends, I've decided to come back to it. I have lots to share, lots God is teaching me and I pray that it will be of benefit and help and encourage someone out there.

My verse for this new blog is Colossians 3:17, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." I am not perfect, but my goal is to try to glorify God in everything I do in my everyday, often mundane life/job as a stay at home wife and mom. I hope you follow along!

With a new purpose and passion for this blog, I decided it needed a new look! So Molly from the Life Made Lovely team worked with me to create this new look and over the last month and I love it! I've been working hard to organize the back side of the blog to make it easier to find things and to work on some larger areas that I think would be helpful for you all! 

Here is what my blog looked like before....

This week I had the pleasure of working with Molly from Life Made Lovely! She did a great job and worked with me through my particular desires! If you are looking for a redesign of your blog or website, I'd highly recommend both Heather and Molly! They are both so helpful! Thanks ladies!!