Tuesday's Tip-Shop your pantry and freezer

Today's tip is something I'm doing this week so it's fresh on the brain. It's simple really. Shop your freezer and pantry for dinner. I try to do this every few months or so. If you are like me, you forget about all the food you have in your freezer. In our house that tends to be alot of fish, chicken and some beef. This is a cool tip because you save on your grocery bill for the week. For example, tonight we had spaghetti. I had a pound of frozen organic beef in the freezer. I had a ton of organic pasta sauce in the pantry. Another tip, if you have the room, always buy an item in bulk when it goes on sale. You will save a ton of money. I'm down to 6 jars of pasta sauce, but I did have 20. It was buy one, get one free and it's organic so when it goes on sale like that, whether I need it or not, I buy it.

I had the pasta already as well and so that's all I needed for dinner. Last night we had salmon and rice because I had some frozen salmon in the freezer and rice on the shelf. The nice thing about it also is that you clean out your freezer at the same time. I did have to throw some items out that had been there way too long (organic beef hotdogs from July 09 hidden under a big bag of chicken). By the end of the week I will have an almost empty freezer and pantry and it will be time to hit the grocery store again.

What meals are hiding in your freezer and pantry just begging to be made?

My Love

I heart Valentine's Day! It wasn't always a day that I loved. Actually 10 years ago I loathed it. I was single and had just moved across the country and my dating life was pretty much non-existent. I was on the road so much (I was in Christian music) which didn't help things. I was never home to have a date, let alone make many friends. My friends were my sisters that I traveled with, which was great, but I longed for the friendships I had back home. I was 27 and pretty lonely. Most of my friends were already married and having kids. I thought surely by now I would be married. I remember telling the Lord, "I'm done trying to make this happen". "I trust you and will wait on you for the perfect one." I truly meant it with all of my being. Little did I know that 5 months later I would meet my husband. It was as if God was just waiting for me to turn it over to Him.

I can't believe it's been 10 years ago today that I remember having all those feelings. Feelings of lonliness and wondering if I was ever going to be a wife. Now it's hard to remember my single days. My husband and I have been through alot. Infertility, loss of a child, and just recently the loss of Brian's dad. I know there will be more trials ahead and I love that saying, "I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future". One of my favorite hymns as a child and to this day is called "Because He Lives".

Because He lives I can face tomorrow

Because He lives all fear is gone

Because I know who holds the future

Cause life is worth the living just because He lives

God's timing is always perfect. He doesn't make mistakes. I just want to encourage you, whether it's waiting for a mate or waiting for a child, HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART. One of my favorite verses is found in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It's hard I know when you desperately long for that which is unseen, believe me, I've been there, but I am here to tell you that the wait is well worth it. I have an amazing husband that loves me unconditionally and two beautiful daughters that I would die for. God is so good. Even in the midst of our pain and trials He is still there holding out his hand for us to take it if we allow Him too.

So today I write with a grateful heart. I'm thankful for the many blessings God has given me. I am thankful for my valentine of almost 9 years. Thank you honey for being my best friend. I love you more and more each day. I am thankful for my 2 little girls who bring so much joy to my life. I love being their mommy. Thank you Lord for the blessings that are still to be revealed. I wait patiently and expectantly. Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord".

Surprising Daddy

I love taking the girls to see their daddy at work and today was a good day to do just that. I remember when we were struggling to get pregnant thinking about how great it would be when I was able to take them to the office. I don't know why this is such an important thing for me to do, it just is. I love to see the girls eyes light up when they see daddy at work. Our first stop was to Gigi's cupcakes to pick up a chocolate cupcake. Their frosting is the best part of the cupcake and they put a ton on.

Then we got him 12 red heart Mylar balloons and took them to his work. When we got there he was in his weekly staff luncheon watching "The Office". How cool is that? Wish I worked there on Fridays. He was so surprised to see us. He loved getting his treats from his precious girls. He even shared his chocolate cupcake with us.

I am so thankful that the girls have such an amazing daddy. They are so blessed!

They had on their cute sweatshirts that their Nana just got them. Thanks mom.

Between the Valentine candy they got at school yesterday and the cupcake today, they are on a major sugar high. I guess they will come down soon enough.
As you can see, a good time was had by all.

My Blissdom Friends

I had a wonderful time at Blissdom meeting new friends and old. I was thrilled that my dear friends, Chrissie and Lisa, would be coming into town from California. I hadn't seen them in over 10 years since I moved to the south. I grew up with them in youth group in high school and college back in Southern California. It was so great to catch up with them on Friday night at dinner. It felt like it was old times and that 10 years hadn't really passed. They are both wives, mothers and very talented and creative business women. Chrissie makes handmade costumes and banners, basically anything you need to throw a great party. You can visit her site at Handmade Play. Lisa has her own jewelry line that is just beautiful. Thank you Lisa for my angel wings necklace. I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me. I love it. You can see her designs at LisaLeonardOnline. With Mother's Day coming up it would be a perfect gift for mom. I can't wait for next year's Blissdom just so I can see them again.

I also had the privilege of meeting someone whose blog I have followed for over a year and a half now. She was actually one of the very first blogs I started reading. Jennifer McKinney, aka, Mckmama, was at Blissdom to give the closing keynote speech. On Friday I got to sit down and talk with her for a bit. I didn't really know what to expect, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. She is genuine and incredibly sweet. She was truly interested in hearing my story and asking me questions about my journey through infertility. I was also able to give her the bib I had made for her new little one coming in the summer. She loved it. Her closing speech on Saturday was great. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house as she shared her testimony and showed a video of the name banners people had done for Stellan when he was sick. Thank you Jennifer for your heart and for being authentic and real.

I roomed with my friend Calie from BroccoliCupcake. How great is that name? Her slogan is "Where Healthy, Meets Happy". I love it. If you have read my blog for sometime, you know I am very much in to health, so it was great to be able to talk with someone who really has lived it. It was fun to be able to swap things that we've learned and put into practice for our families. Calie also has a Women's Wellness Weekend coming up at the end of the month here in town. If you are local you need to check out her website for more details. It's going to be great.

I have many more new friends I made that I will be telling you about on another post. It was truly a wonderful weekend for me. One I will soon not forget.

Tuesday's Tip-A way to reuse a baby wipe container

Today's tip I just discovered a couple of days ago. I had an extra baby wipe container laying around the house since Sydney is fully potty trained. Can I get an amen? So thrilled to have no more diapers or pull ups. Anyway, I put all of my plastic groceries bags that I need upstairs in the container and it works perfectly. I like it because it keeps them contained. I use a different holder in the pantry that is screwed to the wall.

I try my best to use the reusable shopping bags when I go shopping, but sometimes I forget and have to use the plastic ones that the stores gives out. Luckily, my Publix grocery store has a bin outside where you can recycle them. If you have a Publix in your area they have recycling trash cans in front of their stores that you can recycle plastic, paper bags and egg cartons. Give it a try.
Where do you store your plastic bags?

A trip to the ER

Today started out like any other day. The girls and I got up and ate breakfast and then headed to the gym. Sydney was a little whiny when I dropped her off but I really didn't think much of it. We then went home and had lunch. Sydney wasn't acting sick. She was her usual self. I did notice that she didn't eat much lunch. She said she wasn't hungry. Then around 1:30 I put the girls down for a nap. They were giggly and goofing around and I told them that if they wanted to do crafts in the classroom down in the basement, they needed to take a nap. They both fell asleep quickly after that.

When Sydney woke up she told me she was cold. I felt her forehead and noticed she was pretty warm. She was still acting normal. Not sick at all. We proceeded to go down to the basement and by now she just wanted to sit in the chair. She said she was still tired. She asked me to go upstairs and get her a sippy cup of milk so I did. I had to go to the top floor to get her cup out of her room and then back down to the kitchen. I got her sippy cup and then I answered the phone. It was my mom calling just to check in and see how my day was going, something she does everyday. I talked to her for about 3 min and told her I needed to go back downstairs to check on the girls. It's not uncommon for me to leave the girls playing for a few minutes. They play really well together and I've never had any problems before.

I walked downstairs and went to hand Sydney her sippy cup when I noticed she was frothing at the mouth and I realized, "Oh my word she is having a seizure". I noticed that she was very pale and her lips looked grey. I immediately picked her up and dialed 911. At the same time I needed to call Brian, but since I was on the phone with 911, I had to IM him at work. I just said Sydney having seizure. It was all very surreal and happened so fast. I took her upstairs right in front of the door and laid her on her side. She was still spitting up so I wanted to make sure she didn't choke. I think she seized for well over 5 minutes. She stopped just when the paramedics were getting there. Then they took over. By this point she had fallen asleep. They took her pulse ox and it was 82%. Normal is 95-100%. They put her on oxygen and loaded her into the back of the ambulance. I let Brian go with her so that I could get Brooklyn settled with my friend and neighbor. Thanks Brandy for taking good care of her.

Poor Brooklyn was watching all of it. She handled it so well. I think her little 4 year old brain was just trying to take it all in. It was hard because I was trying to take care of Sydney, but still pay attention to Brooklyn. I knew this was tramatic for her. At one point one of the EMT's came over and started talking to her. He asked her her name and told her that her sister would be ok. As they were leaving I noticed that Brooklyn had gone upstairs into her room. She then came back down the stairs holding her doctor's bag. I wanted to cry. It was just so sweet. She wanted to take care of her sissy. My little doctor in training.

By the time I got to the hospital she was coming around. She was still really out of it. She just kept saying, "mama, mommy, mama". She wouldn't talk to me or answer any questions. This went on for over an hour. The doctor wanted to make sure she was her normal self before letting us go home. Thankfully she fell asleep for about 15 minutes. When she woke up she was much better. She asked for some apple juice and something to eat. She kept saying, "I want to see Brooklyn". It was so sweet. Then she said, "I'm tired, I want to go home to my bed". I knew I had my little girl back. The doctor said it most likely happened because she spiked a fever so quickly. We will have to keep a close eye on her for the next few days. I will be sleeping with her for awhile it looks like just to make sure she's ok.

I have seen numerous seizures before. My two youngest sisters have a seizure disorder so I know what to do and know what to expect, but when it's your child, it's heart wrenching. You feel so helpless. At one point when I had 911 on speaker, I just started to pray over Sydney out loud. I prayed in the mighty name of Jesus that her seizure would stop. Shortly after praying she stopped seizing.

I am humbled by the texts, emails, phone calls, and tweets that we received tonight. I tear up as I think about them. I can't tell you what it means to us to know so many went before the Lord on our behalf. I can't thank you enough for praying for our baby girl.

I'm exhausted and there is a little girl upstairs asleep that I can't wait to cuddle up next to. Please continue to pray for Sydney that she will not have anymore seizures. We will be following up in the next few months with a pediatric neurologist just to be safe since seizures run on both sides of our family and they can be genetic. Thank you again for your prayers.

What a day!

I don't even know where to start. Today has been amazing. I have met so many wonderful bloggers and my brain is a little on overdrive to say the least. I attended two really good workshops today. I can sum up in one word what they were all about. That is "community." The Webster's definition of community is described as a unified body of individuals, a people with a common interest.

There was a strong sense of empowerment as I looked across the room of about 500 women. It was really inspiring to me. We are all women, wives, mothers, united in our passion for blogging. We are women who are strong, intelligent, and striving to do the best we can do in this thing we call life. Most of us are wives and mothers, but whatever we choose to blog about, we are united because we have a voice. A voice that resonates across the blogoshpere. We share our heartaches and our triumphs. We share our victories and our defeats. We hopefully share when we've made mistakes and when we've followed our guts.

I may not have the fanciest blog in town and that's ok. What I realized today is that I have to stay true to who I am. Who I believe God has called me to be. First and foremost I am a child of the most High God. Secondly I am a wife to an amazing husband and thirdly I am a mother to my beautiful daughters. I blog about the things that have made me who I am today. Overcoming infertility to become a mom, the passion I have to eat healthier and to share what that can do for others, and the everyday struggles and joys I have being a mommy to my two little girls. I am grateful if 10 people read my blog or if 10,000 read my blog. If something I say makes a difference in someones life, than I feel like I have accomplished what I was made to do. Thanks for stopping by.

Can't wait to get my Bliss on!

I am so excited for "Blissdom 10" here in Nashville. BlissDom 10 is a blogging conference and it's being held at the beautiful Opryland Hotel. If you have never been to Nashville or the Opryland Hotel, you have to go tour it if you ever come to town. It's beautiful! It's the most beautiful at Christmas time. That's when we like to go there and take pictures. Anyway, even though it's only a 40 minute drive to Opryland, my sweet hubby got me a room for my friend Calie and I so we could spend the night Friday night. I am so excited. It has been a long 3 weeks and it will be nice to get away and relax. There will be over 500 women at the conference. Party!! I had to go buy a black dress today for the cocktail party tomorrow night. What could be better than workshops, food and girl time? HARRY CONNICK JR. Yep. He's performing tomorrow night. Oh my stars. I'm such a big fan of his music. He's a great family guy too with a beautiful wife and 3 daughters. Maybe I can snap a photo with him. One can hope right?

I'm excited to meet so many women of whose blogs I read. MckMama will be there and she is doing the closing Keynote on Saturday night. I'm thrilled to hear her speak and to meet her. I even bought the new baby a little gift. (In case you can't tell from the picture, it's a bib) I have a friend who makes them and she does such an awesome job. I've given so many burp cloth sets and bibs as baby gifts. I love anything that is personalized. What do you think? I don't think she reads my blog so there is no harm in posting a picture and ruining the surprise. I hope she likes it.
Gotta go pack. Will tweet from the conference. If you want to follow you can @kristalord.

Life's Simple Pleasures

Kelly, from Kelly's Korner, did a post yesterday about life's simple pleasures and I decided to join in. Here are my simple pleasures:

Ice cold sweet tea on a hot summer day

The girls piled in bed with us on a Saturday morning

A warm chocolate chip cookie

A quiet house and a good magazine

Watching my girls sleep

Hearing my baby's heartbeat for the first time

Holding hands with my husband

Hearing the girls pray to Jesus

My hubby coming home from work and giving me a kiss

The sound of the ocean

Nursing my babies

Seeing a shooting star in the dark of night

Lifting my hands in worship

My dad's laughter

Hearing the words "I love you Mommy" from these two precious girls

Tuesday's Tip-Bissel Little Green ProHeat

My Tuesday's Tip has become my new best friend. I wish someone would have told me about this machine when we moved into our brand new house 2 years ago. My carpets and upholstery wouldn't look like they've been through a war. I will even go as far to say that every new mom should put this on their registry. You will use it more than any baby wipe warmer or diaper genie, I promise you.

Right after Brian and I got home from Indiana a few weeks ago, Sydney decided to get sick. Bless her heart she threw up her lunch all over our shag carpet in the great room. Oh why couldn't she have made it to the hardwoods in the kitchen? It was a mess to say the least. Chunks of food and milk were embedded in the carpet and I had no idea how I was gonna get it out. My first thought was that I was going to have to call someone in the morning to come clean the carpets. I knew that would be pricey so I told Brian I had to make a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond and see what I could find.

I had heard about the Bissell Little Green ProHeat and figured this was the perfect time to try it out. It retails for $109.00 and it's worth every penny. I had a 20% off coupon and $50 store credit so it only costs me $35. I came home and got to work. Who knew cleaning could be so much fun. It cleaned up the entire mess with ease. I was floored. Then I decided to try it on my chairs because the fabric had stains on it from messy hands and it took them right out.
I really can't say enough about the Little green ProHeat. Too bad I'm not getting paid for this endorsement. This is a must have if you have little ones. It will come in handy when you enter the potty training stage if you aren't already there. You won't regret it. I promise.