Y’all…I am reading this book and it is absolutely wrecking me, in a great, great way. It’s called “7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess” by Jen Hatmaker. If you are like me and really wrestling with living a life of excess, being focused on ridiculous things (or even not on ridiculous things!!), or just trying to figure out how to simplify your life, this is the book for you. I’m not going to go into the book a lot, but in short, it’s Jen talking about how she and her family identified 7 areas of excess in their lives, assigned a month to each of those areas and learned lessons from these experiments. I’m telling you…it will wreck you. Chris and I need to have some serious conversations and make some serious changes, and this book is just confirming it.

I feel like so often we get caught up in chasing the “dream”: having more money, having a big house, having the coolest “Pinteresty” decorations, cool clothes, purses…you name it, you know what I am talking about.…

I have been following the story of a sweet, sweet family in Atlanta who lost their little baby right before Christmas to Trisomy 13. They found out Hallie had this chromosomal abnormality early in the pregnancy and carried her to term praying and hoping for just a few sweet moments with her. They were able to have 4.5 amazing days with her. I definitely recommend heading over to their blog and reading their story…you will be changed. I say all of that because this week I watched the video of sweet Hallie’s memorial service and something they said just struck a chord with me….be present.

Lately I have been reading several books that talk about excess, obsession, lack of focus, etc, etc, etc and I have been feeling the Lord is trying to tell me something that I really need to work on. I need to learn to be present. I feel like in the age of smart phones, iPads, computers, and all of this AMAZING technology, we have lost the ability to be present where we are.…

well, it’s that time of the week again! I was not very disciplined this week, and it shows, that’s for sure! If you are following along on this journey yourself, be sure to link back here so I can follow your progress! Here is what I am tracking each week:

Weekly Loss:

Total Loss:

Workouts Completed:

Days staying within caloric range:

Other Updates:

Annnnnd, this weeks stats:

Weekly Loss: .5

Total Loss: 6.1

Workouts Completed: 2…oops.

Days staying within caloric range: 4…again, oops.

Other Updates: This week I definitely let my guard down! I think after having 2 weeks of doing great I thought it was ok to let loose a little bit! I still saw a loss, but not the results I know I could have gotten if I had been more disciplined with my intake, and with my exercise. My goal this week is to stay in my caloric range 6 days…gulp!…

well, it’s that time of the week again! Happy to say I have good news to report! If you are following along on this journey yourself, be sure to link back here so I can follow your progress! Here is what I am tracking each week:

Weekly Loss:

Total Loss:

Workouts Completed:

Days staying within caloric range:

Other Updates:

Annnnnd, this weeks stats:

Weekly Loss: 1.8

Total Loss: 5.6

Workouts Completed: 4

Days staying within caloric range: 5

Other Updates: I was happy that I got 4 workouts in this week! After about 6 months of being pretty inconsistent, I was pleased with that! I do want to try to be better about staying on track with my eating over the weekends – I know it’s ok to have a cheat here and there, but 2 full cheat days is not really that productive!

Feeling great and can’t wait to be back in all of my pre-pregnancy clothes!!!…

Well, here we are, officially 4 months into this official church planting adventure and it’s been….interesting, hard, awesome, encouraging, discouraging, fun, scary…I could keep going here, but I think you get the point.

I think in my mind I saw this being pretty easy. We would start Resonate, we’d have our core group of people and then people would start flocking to be a part of it. It hasn’t really been like that (at all actually), but I still know we are exactly where God has called us. People have joined us that I did not expect to join us and it thrills me to think of what God is stirring in their hearts as they step completely out of their comfort zones to join us in this really raw, new journey. Some people did not join us that I expected to join us, which is hard. I have had to really ask the Lord to guard my heart in this process and He continually reminds me that church planting is not for everyone and that I shouldn’t take it personally.…