Gearing up!

Christmas is coming down today. Getting this house cleaned and ready for 2015. Getting my shopping list hammered out because my weight loss challenge starts on January 14th!  To prep for it I am going to really look at how to bring clean eating and natural things into my life...would you like to know what I am going to be purging and incorporating?
If you don't then STOP reading HERE---->    (*:*)

Ok.... here goes... keep me accountable won't you?  I will Blog my journey this month so stay tuned for that as well!!

1) Clean eating... getting rid of preservatives and additives of the chemical kind... shop the outer rows of the grocery store and farmers market as much as possible.

2) Clean Clutter... get rid of things that don't matter in the big scheme or have no sentimental value... simple beauty is what I am trying to achieve. ... this will be extremely hard for me...harder than weight loss believe it or not!

3) Clean Closet.... getting rid of clothes that don't fit (which is lots) or those I haven't worn in years, then creating a color palette to re invent my clothes/style/look

4) Clean Heart..... getting rid of my critical/judging spirit by loving more, forgiving more, praying more, trusting Jesus more

5) Clean Mind..... get rid of fears and doubts and negative self talk and less TV .... love myself.. laugh more... read more.....

6) Clean body.... get rid of unwanted fat, tone and trim, strengthen my muscles and lungs and legs.. I will do this by moving more, hydrating more, eating clean and incorporating some essential oils to help me along the weight loss journey.  See below if you want to see which ones I will use!
I'm excited!!

Clean.... simple.... honest... loving... truthful....  Join me ! 

Love...... wedded bliss!

Oh boy... back to the blogstone!

Today I have been married 31 years!.... to the same guy! Yay! It's so hard to put into words the love I have for this man, my hunka, hunka, burnin love. I loved him 35 years ago and said "I Do" 31 years ago but that was a new, young wonder love. Now it's a deep, mature, I can't live without you, you really do complete me kind of love.  The kind that is forged in fire and caressed in love. Polished with tears and buffed with romance. The sometimes sat on a shelf and got dusty kind of love but then taken down, cleaned and reused and rekindled. The love that grounded us in challenging parenting roles and almost crumbled thru crazy trials and stressful times. The kind that made me honestly think I would be a widow and wrenched my heart kind of love....twice! (FYI... not a fun place to be) BUT thru all the ups and downs and sideways places we have been through, our Now kind of love is my favorite. I thank Jesus everyday that he picked me to be this mans wife...no other woman could've handled him.... lol... just kidding!! I am honored because he is loyal and fun and honest and funny and responsible and humble and most of all he loves Jesus and me!  I am a blessed silly girl and I know it!  So CHEERS to 35 more years with him!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

On the 25th Day of December my daughter gave to me...... ( my gifts to Jesus)

ME!  .........silly girl, wife, mommy, mother-in-love, daughter, sister, friend, sinner, lover of Jesus, child of God!

As we get ready to welcome family into our home and sit and open presents, I look at the wrapped gifts. Some are so pretty with perfect bows and glistening paper and some are fancy gift bags with tons of tissue paper billowing out the top and others are more simple and plain with a name written on the tag or the ones in a trash bag with a bow (because they're too big for a gift bag or paper or a man wrapped it...lol) In the end it doesn't really matter what the wrapping looks like, because the gift inside is what matters. Sometimes I feel like the fancy wrapped gift and other times I feel like the trash bag. But inside, my heart is what Jesus wants and loves.

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus....thank you for being so awesome and not being picky about my wrapping paper!

(manger in the barn next to the Inn of Pinterest)

Merry Christmas to you and your Kin

The 24th day of December my daughter gave to me...... (my gifts to Jesus)

My Family.......  my handsome hunka hunka burnin love, my precious sonshines, my gorgeous daughter in love,  fun and loyal four legged fur babies....

I am a blessed silly girl...I truly don't deserve the wonderful people God has given me but I accept them with heartfelt gratitude. I hope I have handled them well and treat them with His grace and love. I know that sometimes when I look at them I well up with emotion, my heart filling up with so much love and pride that I think I might burst. (sometimes I do burst and it oozes out thru my fingertips and onto your screen!)  But Today I give them to Jesus for I know He will continue to bless them and keep them in the palm of His hands. That He will guide them thru life with it's ups and downs so that they may grow and learn to lean on Him and love Him more deeply.

This Christmas Eve may you feel the deep love and pride and grace that God has for you as you celebrate the birth of Sweet Baby Jesus.  He really does love me....and He really loves you too!

Merry Christmas....... may you have Joy and Laughter and oodles of Blessings in the coming year!

from my almost Mayberry little family to yours................. barra     oxoxoxoxoxo

BONUS POST! Bath Salts

Ok my peeps.... I was busy this morning making some bath Salts for gifts to people I love.

Here's a celly pic of them ...

Nighty Nite

bath salts

Epsom salt,

Baking Soda, Sea salt

Lavender, Valor,

Vetiver,  Cedarwood

 Feel Better

bath salts

Epsom salt,

Baking Soda, Sea salt

Lavender, Thieves, Raven, Peppermint

I use only Young Living Oils as they are the only ones I trust completely.  Stay tuned for more recipes and info throughout the year on my oily journey!! 

No time like the present....

On the 23rd day of December my daughter gave to me........ (my gifts to Jesus)

My focus.... scatterbrained, ADD head, easily distracted, never finish my projects, there's got to be an oil for this!

So as I sit down to write this blog post today I have a million things that need to be done yet..(don't we all on Dec 23rd?  please say yes!) I have started on 999,998 things and have only finished 2 so far. Ugh!  I am so scatterbrained and ADD ( no offense but I truly believe that had ADD/ADHD been a diagnose-able issue in the mid '70's I could've been a poster child!) Ok that being said I made a decision to get my mind together and get stuff done in an orderly fashion today so as not to be in Tazmanian devil mode tomorrow. Well........I did get 2 things done so far and it's only 2 pm.  There is hope for me yet! I find that this rings true in all areas of my life even the times I try to spend with Jesus. I am so easily distracted. Like an ostrich and shiny things. I have figured out tho that my best times to talk to Jesus is in the car with the radio turned off... can't get distracted by too much in there. But I'm not in my car everyday. We need to find what works for each of us in bringing our focus back to Jesus. Our nation needs to figure that out... our schools need to figure that out... our families need to figure that out.... but it starts with me and you and each individual. Bring the focus back to Jesus and love and grace. Bring the focus back to the present... what can I do to focus on those things this minute or this hour or this day because if I don't then....squirrel!

(a beautiful mantle sign that brings me back into focus in the living room of pinterest)

Seriously tho, how could this cute little Flickr squirrel not distract you? 

PS. about an oil for my scatterbrainedness.. actually, there is one... it's a young living oil called Vetiver...seems to be helping today... it's a little stinky tho..  but hey! If it works, right? 

Short but sweet.....

On the 22nd day of December, my daughter gave to me......(my gifts to Jesus)

My baking skills....... non existent, I'm no Betty Crocker, not much of a sweet tooth,

It is no secret that I do not bake. I do not have the skills required to do so. That is the skill of following directions. You have to follow a recipe to bake or it doesn't come out right,  right?  I can cook you under the table but will lose the baking contest every.single.time. I love cookbooks and will peruse them (or pinterest) all the time but rarely will you see me use it to actually cook a meal. I use them as "guidelines". You know, now that I think about it I'm not that way in real life. Or am I ?hmmmm....weird. I am a crazy, cuckoo, rule follower. I color inside the lines and freak out if I break a rule. But only in certain areas... like traffic laws or no trespassing signs.. other areas? Not so much. I have blue in my hair and ink on my skin and I am an old lady..perhaps too old for such shenanigans. Perhaps in cooking and other personal things, since they are not a life or death or incarceratible offenses (is that even a word?..ok I looked it up, it's incarcerable... I like mine better) anywho... since I can't go to jail for making bad cookies or meatloaf or having blue in my hair, I choose not to even follow the "rules'.  Haha..I'm such a rebel!  Well there is only one rule to follow when it comes to Jesus and that is to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. You know what? That is the easiest recipe ever! So while I attempt to bake some sort of Christmas confection and have it turn out edible I will remember that some rules are meant to follow or they won't turn out right. I have turned out right! Have you?

(cookie for Santa in the pinterest household)