Losing My Grip

Lately I feel like I'm losing my grip on things. It might be that I'm pregnant and I have a two year old and a one year old, but I feel like I've been REALLY lazy lately.

Last year I did so good at never eating fast food, cutting out a ton of processed food from our diet, cooking stuff from scratch, only letting the kids watch an hour of TV a day and keeping up with the laundry and house work.

This year I think I have failed at all those things and we're only one month into the year! I really hate fast food, being a vegetarian the only options besides their lettuce, a grape tomato and a few grated carrots, is french fries and a maybe a baked potato (at Wendy's). It never tastes as good as I hope it will, I never feel good after eating it, yet it always sounds good when I'm "starving" and driving somewhere.

I've also become a huge TV junkie!! I could seriously sit and watch TV all day. Reading and being online gave me a headache during the first trimester of my pregnancy, so the only entertainment I had was TV.

I don't even want to get started on house work.... That is really the one thing I have absolutely NO motivation to do!!!!

The worst part is, all this laziness has crept into my relationship with God and I've been lazy when it comes to reading the Bible and praying...

It's time to snap out of this funk and get back in the game. I'm hoping that since I'm in my 2nd trimester everything will get back to normal. I really need the energy to keep up with my growing family.

Pearl Alliance

Human trafficking has always seemed incredibly overwhelming to me. The idea that it's happening in the United States freaks me out even more. I always felt helpless when I thought about all the women and children who are forced into being sex slaves. It really breaks my heart.

When I was 15 years old I said I wanted to go to Brazil and open a house for former prostitutes so they could get out of the sex industry. I'm not exactly sure where I got this idea, maybe God spoke it to me? The more I learn about it, the more I feel helpless because there are SO many who need to be helped.

Last Sunday at church a lady approached me about baking something for the fundraiser our church is doing to raise money to send to Pearl Alliance. At first I just agreed to it for the sake of agreeing, but after watching the video I realized this may be a small way I can help these people. It might not be much for me just to bake a batch of cookies but it's something.

Please, watch this video. I can't help crying every time I see the faces of the young girls selling themselves on the street.

Pearl Alliance from Messenger International on Vimeo.

The Young Mom

A few weeks ago I took the kids to story time at the library. We were sitting next to a dad and his son, who was about the same age as Jayden. I mentioned that I grew up in Broomfield and he asked if I graduated Broomfield High school because he graduated BHS in 1994, I said, "Yes, I graduated in 2005."......... Never before have I realized how young I am compared to so many of the parents I meet.

I always feel like I go through an identity crisis whenever I go shopping because I don't know if I'm too old to shop in the juniors section or at stores like Forever 21, Pac Sun, etc. but whenever I wander over to the "ladies" section I REALLY feel out of place. The thing I like about being pregnant is that at Target the maternity clothes are really cute and I pretty much like everything they have.

I was 20 years old when I found out I was pregnant with Jayden and 21 when I had him. I don't know many people where I live that had their first child when they were 21. However, I went to CFNI with lots of girls who had kids that young. It really makes me wish those ladies lived closer. It's nice to have people that can relate to you as a young twenty something and as a mom. Thank God for Facebook because I can still keep in touch with those ladies and find out how they're handling life as a young mother.

While we were in Texas I was talking with a good friend of mine who recently gave birth to her first baby. We were laughing about how we weren't able to wear our wedding rings when we were pregnant and we didn't want people to think that we were some teenage girl who got knocked up by her boyfriend. I told her about how I had a coffee mug with my wedding picture on it and I used to carry that on the bus so people would know I was actually married since I wasn't able to wear my ring.

I am blessed to have my next door neighbor who will be 22 next month and is pregnant with her 2nd baby... we just really need to speak the same language. I highly doubt she knows this, but she's an inspiration to me. Her house is always clean, her dishes are always done and she is always making some kind of a home cooked meal. I love going over there! :)

I don't ever regret having children young. I'm actually really thankful we did it this way. I just wish other young women would do the same.. ha ha! :)

Homemade Potato Soup

Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE potatoes! In fact I've been craving potatoes this whole pregnancy. I've been eating more mashed potatoes than any person probably should. Anyways, I've been wanting to find a good restaurant style potato soup recipe, so I did just that. I searched in Google "restaurant style potato soup" and came across this website with this recipe. I made it today for lunch and it was delicious. I didn't alter anything in the recipe, but I did notice the price of heavy whipping cream is pretty expensive, so I looked up a substitute. If you are interested go here for directions.

Ingredients

• Potatoes (6-8 depending on the size)
• 1 Onion, diced
• 4 14oz cans of chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• Celery salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 dash of basil
• 1 dash of sugar
• 2 sticks of butter
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Garnish

• 4-6 pieces of cooked bacon, chopped
• Chopped chives (amount depends on your preference – I like a lot)
• 2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack / Cheddar cheese blend.

Directions

1. Boil the potatoes, peel and set aside (someone suggested you rub with kosher sale and bake the potatoes, leaving the skin on)
2. In a large soup pot, melt the butter over a low to medium heat, being careful not to burn it.
3. Add the onion and cook until softened.
4. Add the flour and stir while it cooks for about 3 minutes.
5. Slowly add the chicken broth, water, salt, pepper, basil and sugar.
6. Bring to a boil, stirring often with a wire whisk.
7. Gradually add the heavy cream until you’ve reached the proper consistency.
8. Chop the potatoes into bite sized cubes and add to the soup.
9. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes to bring the potatoes to temperature.
10. Ladle the soup into individual bowls and garnish with chopped bacon, chives and the cheese blend.
11. Enjoy!

Baby Fun...

We've decided to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender... but just out of curiosity I found a chinese gender chart to see what it would say. I've done it before (after giving birth to both my kids) and it was right about both of them! So... according to the Chinese calendar, it's a BOY!! ha! I guess we'll find out for sure in July!

A lot of people have been asking me what gender I want and I can honestly say, "I don't care either way." Seriously, as long as the kid is super laid back and easy I don't mind. At first I was hoping for a girl because Gabriella has been such an easy baby, but then it occurred to me that not all baby girls are as easy as she is... so I changed my mind. Then I realized, boys might be harder the first couple years of life because they're so energetic, but I think they'll be much easier as teenagers.

So if you're up to it, see what the chart says about your kids... was it right or wrong? I'd like to know! :)

Ps. As of today I'm 11 weeks along and really hoping to get my energy back in the next couple of weeks as my first trimester comes to an end!

The end of one year and the beginning of another

The Holiday rush is officially over! Now that Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have all passed, I feel like I can take a breath!

We had a great Christmas celebrating it with all of our families. Christmas day we had a lovely breakfast at home with just the 4 of us, followed by lunch with my mom and her husband and my brothers, step siblings, nephews, etc. Then we went to Jordan's parents and opened presents and ate a HUGE dinner! The next day we had lunch with my dad's side of the family and I was able to spend several hours with my grandma, which was truly the best Christmas gift I could get. I'm so thankful for her.

3 days after Christmas we packed up the car and drove 14 hours straight to the wonderful state of TEXAS!!!!! Jordan and I haven't been back since April 2008, so it was fun to take the kids and meet up with everyone again. We stayed with a wonderful family from our church and got the chance to see most of friends down there.

The kids did pretty great on the trip, we drove through the night so that they would sleep. Unfortunately, that meant Jordan and I weren't going to get the sleep we need. I have such an incredible husband, he drove for 9 hours and then asked if we could switch, I drove for 2 and then gave up. We took turns driving the last 3 hours. While we were there is was hard because we were going out to eat all the time, staying up late, always on the go, etc. and the kids did the best they could to keep up. I'm thankful now to be back to a normal everyday setting.

The whole reason we went to Texas was for a wedding. Our pastor's youngest son was getting married to a girl in the church that we've known for 5 years now. It was a beautiful wedding and I was so grateful we were able to be there! I love going to weddings as a married person because it's a great reminder of marriage and what God created it for!

We were also able to meet up with my former boss, friends from CFNI that we went to Guatemala with, we went to IKEA, Jordan led worship at a youth group and lots of chatting with great friends. I really wish we could have stayed another week because there are so many friends I wanted to see, but we simply ran out of time.

The trip was not only physically refreshing, getting to spend time together as a family and just enjoying each other. But it was spiritually refreshing as well. The name of the church we were at is Oasis, and it really fits the name! On Sunday, Pastor Barney preached about hearing the voice of God and walking with Him. The whole time I kept getting stirred up in my spirit because I know the things that God has anointed me to do are still within me and I am still called to ministry and I can't lose focus of that. I let the daily tasks of being a stay at home mom take priority over my relationship with God, and it's time I get those priorities straight.

After the service Pastor Barney came over and spoke with us and prayed with us. He really encouraged us by saying, God isn't done with the giftings and anointings that He placed on our lives. So we need to open to where He moves us this year. It was the same thing God was speaking to me during the service, I love confirmations like that!

I did a terrible job of taking pictures on our trip. The only time I took pictures was at the wedding.... So here are just a couple.

Our amazing friends: Landon and Kristin

The beautiful couple: Lindsey and Jodi