This week has been full of early mornings, lawyers, resumes, a little boy's birthday, baby snuggles, deep cleaning our home, doctor's appointments, and relaxing with "The Weepies" Pandora station and episodes of The Great British Baking Show. You know how bad things supposedly come in threes? Well, ours came in like sevens. I'm not going to go into details because who seriously wants to read a blog about negativity? Not me. So I'm going to focus on what my blog has been about since the beginning: Finding Joy in Everyday Living.

Even though God throws us a bunch of crap sometimes, it's truly because He wants us to learn to rely on Him. I know that everything happens for a reason. And when I look back at my life in a year, heck, even six months, I will be able to see that He knew what was going on the whole time, even when I didn't understand, and He planned something better. We just had to go through some trials to get there. I can't wait for that day :)

I'm really working on cultivating a "deep sense of gratitude, of groundedness, of enough, even when I am longing for something more. The longing and gratitude, both. I'm practicing believing that God knows more than I know, that He sees what I can't, that He's weaving a future I can't even imagine from where I sit this morning." (from "Bread and Wine" by Shauna Niequist). I'm trying to not focus on having less or more, but focusing on loving what I have. One of our issues right now deals with money (money is usually the root of all problems), and we have had to cut back our spending severely. Now I love my shopping. Not spending money is going to be hard for me. So, I created a list of ways for me to stay busy :)

• Use my camera and understand it-I've had it for three years and still don't know what half the buttons mean...
• Make macarons, rather, make a batch that actually turns out...
• Watch old seasons of The Great British Baking Show (If you haven't watched this, do so now. It's so great. The judges are super nice, the hosts are funny, and the food is heavenly looking.)
• Go to the library- get three books to read in three weeks as a start (when I was a kid, I used to get like 25 books and read them all within three weeks. It's very sad that I don't have as much time as I used to to read books)

• Learn new culinary techniques from youtube and take notes. Since culinary school is so expensive and I don't live near one, I've decided that shouldn't hinder my ability to learn! Here I come, America's Test Kitchen and random youtube videos :)
• Finish painting the trim in our bedroom
• Video game day with Tim

This is my plan for the rest of the day. Relax and enjoy life. Here's to a fresh, more positive week.