Behind the Curtain...

Do any other bloggers feel like the wizard from the Wizard of Oz? Always behind the curtain talking, without readers really knowing who the person is behind the curtain (behind the blog).  With that in mind, I wanted to share a little bit about my life and some of the major events that makes me who I am. Lets skip childhood and go straight to when I met my hubby :)

My hubby and I met at church when I was in 5th grade. He was my brother's best friend. In junior high, I started to hang out with Dale's group of friends and started to get to know him a lot better. By the time I was 15 we were inseparable best friends and started dating in 2001.

In May 2007, Dale proposed to me at the Scottsdale Love statue.  Of course, I said "YES!"

Our wedding day was a cool, crisp day on November 12, 2007. It started out as a strange day though... 

The night before I had a dream that I was walking down the aisle and my hair was a fro, with no make up on.... Now, could that be a premonition of things to come? Who knows, but I will tell you that my make up artist NEVER arrived to do my make up on my wedding day. True story. So my hairdresser (who has never done make up in her life) took the plunge and tried to make it worthwhile. She did a fantastic job!

We got married at Stonebridge Manor and couldn't have asked for a more beautiful wedding.  It was the best day of my life. I have never experienced a day where I was soo calm and collected and just danced freely. Normally I am very conservative, second guess everything, and don't want to dance since people are watching. Not this day.  This day was perfect!

We had been married for about 3 years, and found out we were pregnant!  I think we got pregnant on the first try and were ecstatic! I wrote about it on this blog years ago. Follow the link for the story: Finding out we are pregnant.

Our son, Joshua Kalel (yes, his middle name is from Superman) was born on Christmas Eve 2010! 2 weeks early, and what a surprise :)  The best Christmas gift I could ask for.

Flash forward to current days...

We are still here and living the life!

Origami Owl GIVEAWAY

Origami Owl has Living Lockets that you can fit charms inside. They tell a story about you. Whether it be charms representing your family, career, hobbies, or passion in life. The lockets are customizable any way you like!

In October of 2012, I joined the Origami Owl team and am loving what I do!  Hearing the stories behind each customer's locket has touched my heart. 

So in celebration of revamping my blog and getting back into the writing world, I wanted to do something special.... 

A GIVEAWAY!

Winner of the $15 Origami Owl credit will be announced on Friday, March 29 by email. The $15 credit will need to be used by April 12, 2013. Open to all U.S. residents. Winner will be selected using random.org

If anybody is interested in hosting an Origami Owl jewelry bar, online party, or needs further information, please contact me.

If you are interested in becoming an Origami Owl designer, follow my link to sign up!  You will need my designer ID # to get started: 5170   Click here to sign up

 

Elizabeth Hermesch

Origami Owl- independent designer

ehermesch@gmail.com

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Website 

 

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Menu Planning

Today I am blogging about what I usually do to menu plan for my family of 4 (hubby, myself, my 2 year old, and my mom who recently moved in).  I'm sure most of you have different ways to plan your dinners.  Personally, I have tried a lot of different ways to plan--some that work well and some that are very unorganized that you probably wouldn't even call it "planning". My problem is that if I don't plan dinners for the week then it usually means we are eating Ramen or cooking something out of a box of processed food.

When I have the extra time and will power, going through recipes is where I start.  If I need any filler recipes to get us through the week, "Feast on a Budget" has been my go-to for recipes that correspond with items that are on sale for the week (for AZ grocery stores).

Do I have any couponers out there? I LOVE couponing and have found it to be a little addiction of mine. Any time I can get items for FREAP (I think Sheryl from Cents'able Shoppin coined that term) it's like I just won at a game. "Freap" means free or cheap :)  So along with checking out recipes and Feast on a Budget, I follow Cents'able Shoppin's site to help me along.  That site is amazing!  Sheryl  finds ALL the best deals at valley grocery stores and tells us which coupons to use.  She pretty much does all the tedious work for us couponers in price checking.

There are times when I get burnt out from couponing so I resort to price matching. Every week, Cents'able Shoppin puts up a list of all items that can be price matched at Wal-Mart. That means I don't have to drive to all the stores to get all the best deals. I just take in the store ads, show them to the Wal-mart cashier and get items for the cheaper price.  This has saved me a TON of money in the end. Check out this week's price match list: Cents'able Shoppin Price Match List.

Recently, I created a Menu Planner (the one pictured below) to help with my endeavor to be organized and know from a glance what I'll be making for dinner that night. Also, this really helps to ward off the "What's for Dinner???" question that my family was asking me EVERY single evening--drove me crazy.

  I think I want to simplify and create a dry-erase Menu Planner like this one I saw off of Pinterest from The Cupcake Diaries.

Sometimes doing all the steps above can be a bit tedious most weeks, but I know that it encourages my family to be prepared and eat more healthy.  Just so thankful for the sites I have come across that help with the Meal Planning process. Feel free to ask me any questions pertaining to this whole Meal Planning concept. I enjoy the feedback :)

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Made for More

What would you do if a stranger handed you money, and it was completely unexpected?  

  I bet you are thinking, "Oh my! PAR-TAY!" or maybe "Who in the world does that?".  I'll have to back up and tell you what led up to this....

  My hubby and I were getting ready for church, and Dale announced that he thought the sermon was going to be on evangelizing or tithing. My first thought was a sarcastic, "oh, goody..."  First off, for those don't know me personally, I have grown up in Baptist and Non-denominational churches from the time I was born and am usually fine with any church topic....until the word "evangelize" or "tithe" comes up. Ever since teenage years, I would get tense any time those words came up. For example, I went on a junior high trip with a nearby church and was forced to go up to strangers on the beach and proclaim my love for Christ and try to convince strangers that God loved them. Honestly, sharing my faith that way does not come natural to me and I know when people pop up on my doorstep proclaiming their faith, it's a BIG turn off. I am the type of person who would rather share/evangelize by having a normal conversation with a person. If it feels like someone is asking a question or the conversation is naturally leading into the topic of faith, then I would feel comfortable sharing my beliefs.  Secondly, when it comes to tithing (tithing is supposed to be 10% of your income and you give it back to the church), most of my experience has been pastors guilt-tripping or making a HUGE deal about it. Recently, I have explained my whole take on why I feel the way I do about tithing and realized that I just don't want to throw money into the plate like a robot. There's a lot more to it, but don't want to write a novel on here, and am sure you don't want to hear my huge rant/revelation about it.

   So...I walked into church last weekend already tense and thinking the sermon would be a doozie. Boy, was I wrong!  The sermon was completely different than we thought. It was about "Being made for more". The pastor shared some experiences of people doing more than they were asked of. Have any of you heard the story about Billy Ray Harris?  If not, you NEED to watch this short video about the  Billy Ray Harris story.  After hearing more stories related to this and seeing how to apply it to our own lives, our church ended the service in an amazing way.

   The tithing plate was passed around and instead of us putting money in it, our pastor told everyone to take one envelope out of the plate. He said there was money in each envelope (some had increments of $5 all the way up to $100 each), and he wanted us to have it!  Can you believe that?!  Instead of us tithing, he wanted to give the money back to us. BUT the stipulation was that we have to GIVE the money to a stranger. This brought me to tears. I've always wanted to pay it forward and do something like this. Not only has this idea really smoothed over my resentful heart about the word "tithing" but it has shown me that we all can have a purpose. A purpose to help others and to use what we already have (maybe it's not money, but maybe we are gifted in other ways to help others).

   I still have not used my envelope money because I keep praying for an opportunity or the "right" person to come along. It feels really good to know that maybe I can bless someone and bring a smile to their face.  So who knows, but eventually the money will go towards someone/something important.

   So.... if you were given money and told to Pay It Forward, what would you do with it???



If you would like to hear the video sermon, here's the link: Made for More sermon

::Fill Up Your Jar::

 
   Have you ever had moments in your life when something keeps nudging at you?  Well, I had a few of those moments a couple weeks ago, and feel like sharing it with all of you.  It was around the time of my 27th birthday and my husband and friends kept asking me "what do you want for your birthday?"  Honestly folks, there's a lot of things that I want, but there's really nothing that I need. So with that in mind, I kept brushing them off. Later in the week at my MOMS group we got on the topic of how difficult it is to be a mom and to take time out for ourselves. Then, I came home to find that my favorite cookie lady posted a picture on Facebook (see picture above) related to "filling up your jar"... Ding, Ding, Ding!!!  Apparently, I needed this to be a topic of discussion because it somehow grabbed my attention three times that week. 

   Not only do I need to take the time to rejuvenate and fill up my jar, but I know it benefits everyone around.  Can you imagine doing everything for everybody else and never taking the time to relax or do anything special for yourself?  Maybe some of you know exactly what I'm talking about because that describes you to a "T". A lot of moms can relate because it seems like we are a home maker, a nurse, a teacher, a wife, a chauffeur, a coach, a circus ring leader.... all rolled into one person. At the end of the day, we have nothing to show for ourselves. We have a lot to show for what we did for everybody else, but nothing to show that we took time to ourselves. Don't get me wrong, family is important and being there for everyone else is important, but not to the extent of forgetting about yourself in the mix of things. If you're constantly filling up other people's jars you will have nothing left to contribute in the end.

   So with that said, take time to do something nice for yourself. Even if it's just going to get a pedicure or allowing your husband to draw a bubble bath for you. You deserve it. I think I will splurge by getting myself a cookie....



*Thank you to Jackie for letting me use her photo. Some of my inspiration for this blog post came from my favorite cookie lady. You can find  her on facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheCookieCornerAZ or at her website http://www.thecookiecorneraz.com/

   

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important"

Something that a former teacher of mine once said has resonated in my mind lately....

You may be small, but YOU are mighty.

It's the tough times when quotes like these make an impact on your life. There is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself a lie: "You aren't good enough. You don't have what it takes. You're not pretty enough. Don't even try, it's not gonna get you anywhere" blah blah blah blah blah.

The lack of confidence and low self-esteem has always been a problem of mine. Didn't realize how much of a problem it really was until recently. I had ONE person give me their two sense, and I took it to be the end of the world and basically said to myself: "well, guess I'm really not good enough if people say so." I cannot believe how much power I gave to that one person.

Guess it took this situation for me to learn to not beat myself up over and over again. What's done is done. I did the best I could, and that's all that was asked of me.

My friends and family know exactly what this post is referring to, and have helped me so much with advice and a listening ear. I have bounced ideas off them and they keep saying the same thing, "you are more confident than you think." The good thing is-- I did take a stand today and I am not going to do the same thing I did in the past (which is wallow in my low self-confidence and low self-esteem).

I will end this post with a well-spoken quote:

"You is kind. You is smart. You is important." (from The Help)
Don't let others tell you differently