Word of the Year 2017

A few weeks ago, I purchased Lara Casey's Powersheets for 2017. I started working on them and finished them off just in time for the new year. I have LOVED the process and the freedom to make a mess and dream big on paper without it being perfect. If you think you can get a little messy and "brain dump" onto some paper, I'd recommend these! (My workbook is the year notebook that is now sold out as are the 6 month version HOWEVER last I heard, they were taking pre-orders for a Summer shipment! Link here)

What Matter's Most

One of the aspects of the Powersheets, is to look back at the time prior, to look at yourself and to think about what really Matter's most to you. In this process, I was reminded of what matters and what really could be worked on in my life, not just this year but always. So I created this Big Picture Vision Board. My life is pretty simple as a stay at home mom but these Powersheets can be used for even the stay at home mom whose goals are not big time career or life goals.

Word of the year

Another aspect of the Powersheets are to decide on a word that will describe what you want to focus on or what your year will embody. After working through the Powersheets Prep, I came up with my word:

Pinterest Link

I choose the word Joy after actually picking a different word but woke up the next morning feeling like Joy was more fitting. I am a melancholy personality and tend to live in the "glass half empty" world. Things in my environment affect me greatly, and can cause me to loss hope easily. I'm the ultimate introvert and need some alone time to recharge but in our current life, that isn't always possible :) So this year, I am deciding to do only things that bring me Joy and weed out the other stuff in my life that causes me to stumble. The following things are what I hope to Cultivate out of that Joy: A clean home (because it makes me happy and helps in my Joy), Growth in my Faith, My Marriage, a Life Giving Home and my Usborne Business. 
Theopedia's definition and comment on Joy is:

Joy is a state of mind and an orientation of the heart. It is a settled state of contentment, confidence and hope. It is something or someone that provides a source of happiness. It appears 88 times in the Old Testament in 22 books; 57 times in the New Testament in 18 books.^[1]^

Webster's dictionary definition: 1) to experience great pleasure or delight : REJOICE, 2) the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires: DELIGHT.

So far, having this reminder and this word to focus on has been a great benefit to my day to day life! I'm grateful for the reminder to be Joyful in my circumstances and can't wait to see all I learn this year while having this be my word! Hopefully in the next few days, I'll have a post about my GOALS for 2017!!! I'm excited about these!!

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2016....

Wow, when 2016 began, I didn't know what the year was going to look like. I am the true melancholy personality and topped with pregnancy, I just lacked motivation all around. I was exhausted and just didn't feel like doing much so the normal things I used to do ended and a different type of year began. It was a year of pulling back, refocusing, doing research, some resting(before #3 came) and just being very introspective.
I grew a lot this year in my walk with the Lord. I went through some amazing Bible Studies, which I'll share below. My faith and relationship with God grew in a wonderful, yet quiet and personal way. And I found rest in Him.

Life Lived Beautifully Studies: Flourish, Proverbs 31 and Planted, She Reads Truth: Moses, Acts and Advent, Lifeway:Seamless, Living Free

In 2016, we added Tobias to our family...our 3rd beautiful baby we got to take home. His delivery was simple and easy and we were home 24 hours later. He slept most of his first 3 months and has been our most joyful baby. He brings so much life to our home and we are incredibly blessed! I however discovered in this time that I struggle with Post-partum Depression. Everything in life was beyond overwhelming and I just didn't feel like I could cope with it all. Thankfully the fog lifted quickly at around 3 months but the season was rough and I'm glad to be on the other side of it.

My husband was amazing this year, stepping in and taking over all the things. He has become the primary family chef this year and has done a great job stepping into my role. This is one of the reasons why I stopped my meal planning posts...because I wasn't planning any meals. 2017 will hopefully bring back the routine of it all. In 2016, I had the privilege of teaching our oldest son to read at 4.5 years old. He was begging to learn, so we jumped in head first. This among a variety of other things, lead to us deciding to homeschool our children starting summer of 2017. I've done a TON of research, praying and YouTube watching and am so excited about the new adventure we have ahead for us in 2017. And in this crazy year of change and different paths then I had planned, we decided that it would be a good challenge and opportunity for me to sign up as an Independent Consultant with Usborne Books and More. I began this journey on September 2, 2016 and God has lead me down a path I never thought I would have headed down. I've had more success then I ever thought I'd have. It's been a fun and crazy ride and I don't know where God is taking it from here but I look forward to seeing His hand at work and we are thankful for the extra income it has brought us in the last 4 months.

All of this to say, I've missed this space of mine, I've missed the ability to share my thoughts and enjoy this space to write and share and be creative. I don't know what God has in store for 2017. I'd love to spend a little more time on here in some capacity but life is CRAZY with 3 kids 5 and under and all the other things on my plate...who knows what will come but I sure hope some more order and time to think is on the schedule which in turn means more time to write, create, plan, organize and cook. How was your 2016? Was it what you thought it would be? Did something catch you off guard? I'd love to hear from your so please share in the comments below!
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Family Pictures and an Announcement.....

Last week in the midst of our family having the worst stomach bug, we had family pictures schedule with the amazing Brianna Venzke Photography. She shoot our last family pictures a year and a half ago and I just loved them. She has moved twice since then but is a traveling photographer who comes back to Souther California often so when I heard she was heading this way, I made sure to schedule our session. I just love how these turned out! And how well she captured our family.

 Our poor little lady felt so crummy the whole time and was just not her normal self.

But when she got to put on her princess Elsa dress she gave us a little glimpse of her normal self with daddy being silly :)

And announcing.....

We are thrilled to announce that Baby #3 will be joining us sometime in May. My due date is May 28th but this baby is already measuring a week ahead of schedule which is typical for my babies so we usually don't make it past 39 weeks. We will see what God has in store with this little one but we are all very excited!!

We waited to tell the kids we were expecting until we were taking pictures so that she could capture it. The week before Aston had mentioned that my stomach looked like it had a baby inside so we told him he was right.

Aston was so cute when it clicked. He looked at Brianna and said, "Mommy has a baby in her belly!!!!" It was the best!

Leia was very confused and tried to look for the baby :)

Showing them the ultrasound picture.

Leia was over taking pictures and we wanted to get a cute one of them holding the ultrasound picture. This is what we got.....Hilarious! Max calls this picture, "Game Over!"

This is really how Aston feels. He is so excited!!

All photos are by Brianna Venzke Photography. She's amazing! Go check her out!!

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

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!!

No Longer Just Surviving...

Well hello little blog! I've missed you!

I finally feel like I'm getting a handle back on life! Praise God! I have been in survival mode for almost a year now and I am seeing the light now.

Pregnancy is hard on my body. I feel sick for the majority of the time, lack energy and just don't have motivation to do anything. Over the 38 weeks I was pregnant all the extra I had in me went to Aston and Max and even then, I didn't feel like they were getting all that they deserved!

As soon as Leia was delivered, I seriously felt like a new person. I had energy (even though we had sleepless nights) and felt like I could once again conquer the things I'd been missing. I was hugely blessed to have Max home with me for 3 1/2 weeks after she came and that made me spoiled!

Then reality hit. Max went back to work, Aston was sharing mommy all day and really jumping into the "terrible two's" title. Life as a mom of 2 kids is hard. Harder then I expected and different then I anticipated. Trying to be everything to two little people is EXHAUSTING and rewarding at the same time.

I have felt very alone in this new venture and felt like I was the only one who struggles with being the always on mom. After much prayer, a little break down and some very God ordained blogs and instagram feeds, I am more encouraged, feeling less alone and am determined to lean more heavily on God in this challenging time.

I'm working on making more "me" time, while that will be looking a bit different then it used to. I'm planning on reading more, getting more quiet time on my own (if both children nap at the same time) and focusing on what I am called to do...be a mom.

This little blog will probably be changing a bit as I transition into a new place in my life. I will still post recipes and crafts but more importantly I'll be posting about life. I'll be writing more for me out of a journaling type experience in hopes that it can encourage someone else and just as a place to stop and gather my thoughts. Things will be looking a lot different then it has before but thats how life goes right? We grow, God changes us and we move on, following Him to more intensional ways to spend our days.

High Five for Friday!

It has been a strange week in our neck of the woods. We have had a very weird schedule due to my mom being off for two days and Maxwell hurting his back and not going to work, we have been with people everyday. Normally, I miss my down time but I've gotten some great down time having extra hands to help with things this week. So lets get to the highlights!

1. On Sunday my mom and I did a long day of cooking. We roasted up more of our tomatoes and made a large batch of my Copy-Cat Nordstrom's Tomato Basil Soup. It turned out great and is all packaged and in the freezer for another day. I am starting to prep meals and get things in the freezer for when baby girl arrives and while flag football season in in session. Fall is a busy time of year for us and it's about to get busier!

2. On Monday, my mom wanted to do some touristy things in San Diego, since we live in a beautiful place, why not enjoy some things we don't normally do? So we went for breakfast at a little cafe in Coronado, played on the bayside beach, took the ferry into downtown, walked around Seaport Village, rode the carousel and came back all before nap time. It was a very fun morning adventure!

3. This week we also had our new built-in closet piece installed in the kid's room. I can't wait to blog about this project but for now this is how it looks. Talk about a work in progress, especially when your hubby is injured! I'm so excited about this though and am getting everything in order in the rooms for this little one to come! I'm getting excited! About 13 weeks until we meet her!

4. Yesterday, I just got my CEW Birchbox special boxes. They are sadly sold out now but I will soon review the products I received! I seriously LOVE Birchbox! It is so worth the $10 a month! Yes these are extra's but it's so fun to get new things.

5. And finally, I'm so excited! This morning, I signed up for A Cuppa Kim's MugSwap. I have never done an internet Swap before but have always been interested, so I thought why not? You don't have to be a blogger to sign up and you buy a mug for someone and then someone, hopefully, sends you one. I'm excited for this internet "adventure" and will blog about my experience at the end of the month. If you are feeling adventurous, head over there and sign-up yourself. It could be a lot of fun!

I hope you all have a great weekend! And if you want to see what I'm up to throughout the week, follow me on Instagram @bearcubcreations.
Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth.

The Place we Call Home

About 3 years ago now, we made one of the hardest decisions we had to make in our marriage. It was something we did not want to do but after much prayer and discussion, we made the decision to move in with my mom. Little did we know, it would become one of the biggest blessings of our life currently.

A year before, I had quit my job to go back to school to get my teaching credential, I was almost finished and the job market didn't look good. Maxwell was looking for a new job and had been for a while and nothing was working out. We were living off our savings to keep things together.

My mom has a nice 4 bedroom house that I grew up in that she was in all by herself. She had talked about getting a roommate since she had the room but she was nervous about it since she would be sharing the space with someone she might not know. At that time, she offered that we could move in with her.  While I was very reluctant, we accepted, saying it was just for a short time, maybe a year until we could get some things figured out.

In that year, a lot changed! I did not find a teaching job, so I was subbing, Maxwell didn't find a new job and the economy was continuing to decline! We had a long conversation with my mom about staying in her home for a while longer AND if she would be fine with us starting our family while we lived with her. She graciously said yes and we continued to take over her home. Now, my mom was loving having people around and we were learning to enjoy the blessing God had given us.

After, two miscarriages and finally a healthy pregnancy, I decided that I just couldn't go back to work and wanted to stay home with our new bundle of joy. This hadn't been the plan originally but my heart changed a lot in that year. So, thanks to a lot of little stay at home jobs and my mom's lovely invitation for us to say with her, I get to be a stay at home/work from home mom! We would not have this opportunity if we were to stay in California and we are so completely blessed!

Over the last almost 3 years, we have slowly taken over more and more of her house :) We are starting to really make this home, as we don't see us leaving any time soon. And I'm having so much fun decorating and making this a place for us to raise our family for now.

Influence Network

Today, I'm doing something a little bit different and am linking up with The Influence Network. I joined The Influence Network back in January after I took a class on Pinterest and growing your blog. It was a great class taught by Kate from The Small Things Blog and I loved it! So far I haven't gotten to "play" much yet but am so far loving being involved with a group of Christian woman who share about there life in this crazy blogging way :)

We are sharing a favorite photo of ourself, 3 things about me and one thing I've learned from the Influence Network.

I chose this picture from Halloween 2012 because it just shows how we all feel about our wonderful life together. I love these two boys more than words could express!

Excuse the green baby... Aston was Hulk for Halloween last year :)

So 3 things about me!

1. I am first and foremost a wife and mommy to these wonderful men in my life! I married my wonderful husband in January 2009 and our adventure has never stopped! We welcomed this sweet little boy into our lives on September 17, 2011 and we love how he has changed our lives! God has blessed me immensely! Seriously the best job in the whole world!

2. I am a sugar addict! Dessert? I always say yes! I love anything sweet, especially cotton candy and marshmallows! It's a good thing I don't keep them around too often!

3. We share a house with my wonderful mom and I am very thankful she has allowed us to invade and take over her home :) (blog post about this tomorrow)

One thing I've learned from the Influence Network:

Okay, something I've learned recently is the importance of being okay with where God has me and not comparing myself to others. I've looked through forums about how others have struggled with wanting to grow there blogs faster and obsessing about how to be more successful. I was in the same place when the new year began and God has really shown me, with the help of reading through the forums, that He has me and my little blog where He wants me.

Thank you for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you! And can't wait to make new friends through this link-up!