Wife After God: The Review

Love, love, love, LOVED this devotional!

I shared in December how I am purposing to make my marriage a top priority and not get overshadowed by my roles as a mother. This devotional was exact jump start I need this year!

I liken my joy for reading this like waking up on Christmas morning, I could not wait to dive in each morning and start my day. Each chapter was short but POWER packed! The chapter concludes with a prayer followed by a daily challenge and journal questions. Don't skip this, I know we all have a million things to do in our busy days but this kind of seals the deal and gets you thinking about what you read all day long.

Some days the challenges were easier than others, only because I had to put my pride to the side and set out to make change. I found myself multiple times in various chapter and have made the necessary adjustments. I loved that my heart was being tugged to change

This devotional was written for wives in every stage of life. I haven't been married for a long time, 4.5 years, but I am out of the "newlywed" phase and into a whole new chapter with starting a family. I highly encourage new moms to grab a copy and read. Being a mother does not trump being a wife, and when God is in the center of your marriage it flourishes!

If you haven't read this devotional yet please do so. I cannot stress enough how important it is to never stop working at your marriage to make it better.

For more info visit: Unveiled Wife
Grab a copy: Wife After God

*Kaitlyn and Elise are hosting a link-up if you participated in this devotional*

5 on Friday

Friday snuck up on me again! Aaaannnnndddd my husband has the day off, yay! I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

| one |
Best onesie to date! Oh and he has no idea he is wearing a cape :) Watching him crawl with that cape was so funny.

| two |

I shared a few weeks ago that I am doing the Wife After God devotional. LOVE IT! Then this week one of my favorite bloggers, who is just the sweetest lady ever, Elise shared that her and Kaitlyn are hosting a link up. Um yes please count me in! If you aren't reading this devotional I highly encourage you to. It's not too late to play catch up. Stay tuned for my full review of the devotional later this month.

| three |
M turned 10 months this week and I finally came to terms with the fact that in two very short months he will be 1! So this mama is party planning, thank you Pinterest :)

| four |
Yesterday I shared what life is all about. And these toes, my goodness I love baby toes!

| five | 

The decorating bug bit us this week and we have added some much needed color to our living room. We just need a new rug and some wall decor and we can cross that room off the list. 

What Life is All About

This is what life is all about! Or at least my life.

What is that you ask? Being a Mom. My son. My pride and joy. My son.

Not the current events in the news. Not the award shows that are on TV. Not my house. Not the state of my house. Not my wish list of things. Not my things period! Not my phone. Not social media. Not even the much needed vacation. NOT ABOUT ME.

You see life is about these moments right here, right now being everything to M. Life is not all about me. [Now before you get all worked up "me" time is absolutely necessary and should not be neglected but not put before these precious moments. There is a time and a place for "me" time in my life! Ok now that we got that out of the way....]

I have the honor and privilege to stay at home with M, to mold and shape him into an amazing individual. I count it a true blessing to be able to stay home with him and not have to back to work. I would be lying if I told you staying home is easy and that I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want. That was house is spotless and that we have a home cooked meal nightly. Some days are hard, filled with tears [not just from baby] and make you want to curl up in a ball and hide. Most days are easy going and the above list is mostly true. Then there are the really easy days that make you think WOW this is awesome where have you been hiding. At the end of the day I reflect and look forward to doing it all over again the next day and the one after that.

Being a Mother is the most rewarding [I hesitate to use this word because it is by no means a "job" to me, but a joy!] "job" I have ever had. I have learned so much about myself as a person. About a love that I didn't know exists until having a child.  I have stretched and grown [literally and figuratively] and been shaped into the woman I am now. I knew that being a Mother was going to be amazing and that I would love it, but had no idea it was what my life was missing. The element that makes me feel complete now.

These moments at home with M are what my life is all about and this life currently is better than the one I imagined!

Remodeling Confession

Little secret you probably don't know about me...change freaks me out a little bit. I'm not talking about changing up my hair, thats fun! I'm talking about changes in my house. WHY? I despise chaos, I hate disorder it shakes me to my core and puts me on edge. The end result makes me over the moon excited but the process oh I don't like it! 

My sweet husband on the other hand, he lives for change and demo projects! He loves change and is the one who initiates all the changes in our home. He is able to see the end result before it happens and loves to shop around for materials that make our changes unique to us. I am pretty thankful that he has vision for change, I love that he wants to update our home and I appreciate that he is oh SO very patient with this silly girl here and helps me see the vision!

Just some of the transformations our home has undergone since we bought it 2 years ago...

Original family room

After we removed the carpet, original hardwood floor!!

Had this going on for a while...

Current room :) Feels so much more like us.
Please excuse my sons gigantic stroller in the corner and pirate ship.

Kitchen before I hated it!!

Changed the floor and backsplash until we figure out what to do!
**Backsplash is linoleum floor tiles glued onto existing tiles, simple inexpensive fix**

My kitchen now. Knocked down the wall, painted the cabinets, new counter and backsplash. 

I love the open concept!

I cannot wait to finish the kitchen and living room. We still have some paint to touch up, and lots of decorating. Last night he told me our next project is our bathrooms this year, the front bathroom needs a new sink for sure and I hate the tiles on the wall and the ugly 80's inspired linoleum. The changes in there are cosmetic so it should be easy right? Oh boy! So I am going to dream on Pinterest of what I want the end result to be like and pretend I am on HGTV and really get into this remodel and have fun with it!

Mom-Lovin Hop

I am thrilled to be co-hosting the Mom-Lovin hop with Hannah, Lena and Andrea again. Come join in the fun and link-up with us! Happy Thursday :)

Our Guest Co-Host this week is Ileana from Simply Inspired Me.

Ileana is a wife and became a mother last year! As of recent she is focusing on how to not lose her role as wife while being a mother- a challenge for all us mommy's I'm sure! She's starting a serious on her blog going over the devotional  Wife After God:Drawing Closer to God and Your Husband .

Our featured mama this week is Kelli at Pretty Prairie Life 

What don't we love about Kelli?! She's a prairie girl married to a German boy and they have a sweet little lady name Greta! She also just started the 52 project because she got a new camera lens for Christmas, so fun.

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Please, if you are new to the hop or have been here but haven't left a comment, please let us know on our own respected blogs that you are a new follower (be sure to say HOW you are following) so we can follow you back! 

Also, If you are interested in co-hosting FOR FREE shoot Hannah an email at hannahsjoyfullife (at) gmail.com to get on the list, growing your followers couldnt be easier! 

2014 Goals

I'm a little late on sharing my goals, better late than never though. The past 9 months have been a whirlwind of changes for me. I used to power clean in a couple of hours and kept my home super organized. I totally thought that with being a stay at home mom I would be even that more organized. You know what I have to say to that HA-HA-HA! There is only so much I can do in a day and honestly my top priority is my little man so staying organized falls at the bottom of my list when I have extra time. I am slowly getting the hang of being a stay at home mom and managing my house.  When I wrote out my resolutions for the year I realized that there was a recurring theme and I am sure you can see where I am going....GET ORGANIZED oh and decorate, lots of decorating!

Except that is a really, really vague goal. I purchased this amazing planner.

I love the colors and the fact that I was able to customize it!

I am getting in the habit of writing things in one place instead of on a million different pieces of paper that end up getting lost or ignored. 

Oh yes and for my goals....

| one |
Create a cleaning schedule and actually stick to it! If I can accomplish one cleaning task a day instead of trying to cram it into one day that would be so much easier.

| two |
Meal plan. I was really good about meal planning for about a week and it made grocery shopping so much easier because I used everything I purchased and I didn't have to spend time scrambling to throw something together based on what meat could defrost the fastest.

| three |
Finish decorating. This really isn't an organizing goal but it truly needs to be done. I finally have the energy and inspiration to decorate again so bare walls be gone!

| four |
Rearrange closets and put things in containers and label them. I did this already with my baking stuff,  made such a difference and I can actually see what I have and when I need to buy more.

| five |
My ROOM! We have left our master bedroom last on our list and it is done taking the back burner. I want it to look amazing. We are going to get a headboard (or maybe DIY one) change up the decor a bit.

| six |
Finish the office/craft room which is our storage room at the moment, totally unnecessary things just need to be put away.

Every month I am going to make mini goals to go alongside each of these goals to help to accomplish all of them in 2014. So what are you goals this year?