October 6, 2015 by Stephanie

Talks with Tom #40

I have a couple gems for you this week.

It is probably no surprise that we love food in our house, so we have some great conversations.

Tom-I love food so much if I were a fairy princess, my name would be Mozzarella. You may think I mean “Cinderella.” No, it’s Mozzarella. And my middle name would be Pecan Pie.

Me-What is your last name, Pringles? (Earlier that day, Tom had tried to Ebay Pecan Pie Pringles. Yes there are such a thing.)

Tom-No my last name would be Dessert. Dessert is always last.

A couple weeks ago, we had our family over so I decided to test out a new recipe on them. I picked something that looked like it would make a lot. You always want more food than what people can eat!

I made this Crockpot Enchilada Quinoa from Chelsea.

The next day, I was at work when I got these texts.

Tom-I hope you’re happy with yourself.

Me-What does that mean? (In my head I was trying to recall a fight, and I was so confused.)

Tom-This quinoa dip is like a drug. I can’t stop. You did this to us.

Seriously it is crazy good. (And in a crockpot.) I want to make this all the time.

Do you have any crazy convos around food?

October 5, 2015 by Stephanie

In the House

We have now lived here for almost 3 months! While it doesn’t seem like it is that much, I feel like we have always lived here.

We still have a long way to go on our home improvements, but it definitely feels like our house now.

The house before we bought it.

Although we still have no pictures on the wall…maybe next month.

We have, however, done a lot of other things. Well Tom has done a lot, and I just keep him and George fed.

So here are some of the things we have gotten done.

We now have a place for a hose. Tom poured this concrete pad so we can put this thingamabob here for the longest hose ever made.

We now have a storage room. Y’all, I am so excited to have an actual place for storage. Tom built these shelves. We have two sets that hold 5 large storage bins across. Having real storage is life changing.

We are adding motion sensor lights on our fence. Our yard is huge, and it gets like scary dark out here at night. We want to be able to see the dogs out in the yard, so these are the easiest and most cost effective way to light our yard. They are solar powered, and they work really well. We have the front half done, and we are waiting for another sale before we light up the back half of the yard.

One of Tom’s must have projects was putting up these flag poles. He did all the digging, concrete, and raising.

We have cedar siding, which is nice, but it can easily and quickly turn gray. I also felt like our house didn’t look finished. You can be the judge from the picture at the top of the post. So we decided to stain it this reddish color. We have a different house! If we decide to make this our forever home and do an addition, we will put medal siding up and cover the brick with rock.Tom did this all by himself when I was out of town one weekend. I am super lucky to have such a handy hubby.

And the part that we have just recently started is the craft room. My heart is swelling at all the possibilities here. Tom has just put up the frames. We are waiting until we find some really great deals on cabinetry before moving any further. But one wall is painted and done!

The house is definitely keeping us busy. Homeownership is no joke.

You can see our full project list as of now on the “Home To-Dos” tab at the top of the blog.

What is your favorite room in the house? How long does it take you to put pictures up?

September 30, 2015 by Stephanie

Fit for Me 39/52

I made my way back this week!

What I did last week:

Thursday-30 minute walk/run around downtown Columbia.

Saturday-1 hour of BodyPump. It has been a couple months since I have made it to a class, and my thighs are still yelling at me 4 days later. It was a great workout though!

Sunday-We had a pretty busy day, so I had to get creative. Our driveway is about a tenth of a mile long with a big gradual hill. I decided to walk the uphill and run the downhill for 20 minutes before I needed to get ready for church that day.

Tuesday-30 minutes on a bike.

Impressed by:

I was still able to keep up with BodyPump. I didn’t have to take any breaks! I downgraded my weight at the start because I haven’t done it in a while, but I still kept up with each track.

Struggled with:

Honestly, I didn’t really have any struggles with my fitness this week. Pats on the back.

Did I meet my goal from last week?

I made it to Body Pump!

What is my goal for next week?

I want to go for a good run. I haven’t really done a good one since my 10k, and I want to get some quality miles under me.

Fitness Thoughts:

The weather is getting cooler around here so it is going to be harder to feel inspired to go workout some days. I need to find other ways to feel motivated to stay away from “winter bod.” Have you ever heard of winter bod? I hadn’t until this week. Honestly though, I need to continue working out to keep up with all the winter foods. Bring me all the casseroles and holiday breads.

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September 29, 2015 by Stephanie

Baseball Cupcake Holder

I posted about George’s birthday a couple weeks ago, but I forgot to post the tutorial about the cupcake stand using baseball bats. Whoops.

Here is how we made this happen.

We bought a maple softball bat. Regulation wooden baseball bats have black handles, and that was not the look we were going for.

First step is to cut the bat into three somewhat equal pieces. It is a little tricky cutting the bat because it doesn’t lay evenly. It is better to have two people to stabilize while the cutting is happening. We used stacks of washers to level the bat out as much as possible.

After drilling pilot holes in the ends of the bat, you can screw in the double ended dowels.

You will need three circles out of high grade plywood. They will all be different sizes. We actually used a precut for the bottom largest size. It was a precut lazy susan. We weren’t able to find the other two precut, so Tom cut the other two. For the smallest, he used a circle cutter bit. For the middle circle, he cut it out with a jigsaw. He centered a bolt through the middle, and he put it on his drill press (pictured below) to sand the edges while it was spinning.

Then Tom painted all the circles white.

Once the painting was done, we just pieced everything together with the dowel screws.

Tom used a lag bolt on the bottom to hold it together.

Then I used a paint pen and plates as my stencil to do the stitches.

There you have it. It is perfect for desserts, but I am sure George will find other fun things to put on this stand when the time comes.

I am working on an update on our house to share what we have been up to around here. I am glad to be using our creative juices again! George’s birthday projects really sparked us to get our craft back on.

September 28, 2015 by Stephanie

Devotional Review: Intersect

I love stories. Even more, I love connecting to other people’s stories. I have always thought listening to someone else share pieces of who they are, opens my eyes to more of this world, and more of myself too. Often times hearing someone else explain their situation puts words to things I have been feeling but didn’t understand. It’s through stories that we start seeing people’s guts and glory. It’s here that we find that we are all the same.

I was given this devotional study to review, and I must say that I really enjoyed it.

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Intersect is a DVD that has five brief snapshots of five individuals’ lives. Each section hits on a different topic in our walk with the Lord. It talks about what is holding us back and how to move forward.

Along with the DVD is a study guide or question prompt.

Now this study is probably more meant for a group setting, but I was able to glean a lot from it using it as my personal study for a week. Each day focuses on a specific passage and uses the video message to tie it into today’s times. I think we often struggle seeing how the Bible can relate to our world now and brush it off as old news. It allows you to dig a little deeper into the Word but through a contemporary lens.

Each video is about 7 minutes long. You hear a story from an ordinary person and their struggles they faced. I found all the stories to be relevant, and some were things I had grappled with personally. Then Rob or Chris summarize a passage and give you what I like to call a “pep talk” with the Word. Rob and Chris are the creators behind the video and both have pastoral backgrounds. Then you can use the study guide to provoke discussions in your group or for me to journal about on my own.

I think this would be great for Sunday School settings or if you have small groups. I do feel that it may connect more with young adults (20s-30s) with just the layout and some of the content of the stories. I think all in all though, any age group could get some worth out of it.

Here are some key points that I took from the study (paraphrased):

Real life isn’t a dream.
God can breath new life.
Run towards God.
In disappointment, we can learn more about ourselves and more about our faith.
Sometimes we are the only thing holding ourselves back, and God is the wind behind us pushing us forward.
Control is an allusion.

As a bonus, it is based out of London, so all the speakers in the video except Rob have a British accent.

I did receive this study complimentary from Litfuse Publicity Group for my review. These thoughts are my own.