The full mess:

Organizer and printer…

Messy shelves…and yep, that’s a pink 8-Ball Jesus. Chris’ first present to me!

one last shot of the mess…

the after…I added a little mail organizer on the wall (had to get that OFF the desk), a few cork boards, a smaller pencil/stuff organizer…

added an organizer for my notebooks (business notebook, goals notebook, general notes, etc), hung my dry erase calendar (right side), straightened the mess of magazines on the shelves

So, that’s my $30 office makeover. MUCH better space for cranking it out….I am so excited to get to work tomorrow!

Elliot, you are the sweetest baby. Every morning when I go in to get you your face lights up with a big smile and you make little squeals of delight. This morning I went in to get you and you were still dead asleep with your little lovey over your face, when I took it off your head you startled a little bit but just immediately started “talking” to me. You are just so sweet. This morning we went to the grocery store and a woman came up to me after watching you for a few minutes and was just ooohing and ahhhing over how cute you are and how alert you are – you just looked at her with a big grin and won her over even more. I just love being your mama and am so excited to explore life with you as you grow.

At 7 months you:

• Can sit on your own for a long time!
• Still don’t roll back to tummy…what’s up with that?
• scoot backwards (Away from your ultimate goal), but you just push yourself all over the house. You keep trying to get your knees up under your hips but haven’t quite figured it out yet, I think at the next update I will be saying you are crawling!
• looooove to give kisses!!!!
• are starting to have a little bit of separation anxiety…not that often, and mostly just when you are really tired.
• really, really love eating solids! But you do not like avocado…in fact, you are quite offended by it. You also hate yogurt, but so do I, so that’s ok with me!
• have 2 teeth…and those little things are like razors!
• are allergic to dairy, egg, and wheat…hopefully you will grow out of these allergies!
• LOVE cherry tomatoes! Which is so strange to everyone who sees you eating them.
• really love being around other kids! You love to watch them.
• love going to the grocery store! You look so cute and little in the cart and you love looking around at everything and petting my hands while I push the cart.
• you really love Jack…which is good for him, because I don’t really like him very much these days, especially when he wakes you up (which he did the other night)
• LOOOOOVE to play!!!

Sweet girl, it is such an honor to be your mom. I look forward to you waking up each morning and waking from your naps. You are so much fun and your personality gets more exciting every day.

The verse is:  “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” – Nehemiah 6:3

This verse has settled deep in my heart the past few months…my sister, Kelly, got me a sign with this verse on it and I have it up in my office. As a new mom I feel like I am kind of all over the place all the time. Between balancing being a wife, mom, owning a business, planting a church, being a good sister/daughter/friend, etc…there is A LOT going on. I think this verse really sunk into my heart because I realized that I really wasn’t doing anything well. I was doing fine at being a wife and mom, I was doing fine at my job, etc, etc…but I didn’t feel like I was doing anything with excellence, and I needed to identify my ONE thing.

In this church planting journey people often ask me what my role is in the church. And my answer: my role is being Chris’ wife and Elliot’s mom. Those are my 2 priorities. Not work, not friendships, not church activities, not fitness classes, my one thing is my family. Obviously everything else is hugely important (I am not trying to say it’s not!), but I had to readjust my mindset that I don’t have to do everything (nor can I!) and I need to stay focused on my “wall” that God has called me to.

This has meant making a few changes and that I miss out on some things…I shift my work schedule around so that Elliot gets my full attention when she is awake and so I can be there when Chris is around, I say no to a lot of things, I have backed out of several commitments that I felt like took me away from this task and was bringing me down off of my wall, and I had to learn to say “no, I am doing a great work, and I CANNOT come down.”  I often leave church events early to be sure that Elliot gets to bed on time and stays in her routine (yes, we are flexible, but it’s really important to us that she has stability and predictability in her life…and we need to start that now), I turn down a lot of invitations to do things with friends that would require me to get babysitters more days/nights than I want to be away. I had to step away from teaching one of my fitness classes because it took away time that I really feel is precious to our family and needed to be protected. Yes, sometimes it’s a bummer, but then I remember my reason for all of this? I am doing a GREAT work, and I cannot come down. As I was rocking Elliot to sleep tonight I reminded what an honor it is that I was chosen to help shape her heart, show her the love of Jesus, and I don’t want to be distracted from the joy and privilege that God has given me as her mom, so I am staying up on my wall…and I will NOT come down.

If you ever see me sneak out of an event, or if you feel like I am not as available as I used to be…now you know why. God has called me to this, and I am doing a great work, and too much is at stake for me to come down.

So, what is your one thing? Have you identified your wall? Are you staying up there, or are you making exceptions and coming down?

If you are new (or just getting back into…) working out, this is a fantastic program for you – there are beginner DVDs that will really ease you into the program. And if you are an avid exerciser and looking for something to switch it up, you will LOVE this program.

The challenge will consist of: a private Facebook group for the challengers involved, weekly emails from me, and a prize for the person who loses the most inches in our 90-Day Challenge.

All you need to do to get involved is sign up at TeamBeachbody, and click SHOP to purchase the Les Mills Pump Challenge pack, which includes:

• Les Mills PUMP workout system (which includes a barbell and weights!)
• 1st Month of Shakeology Home Direct (in the flavor of your choice…my favorite is Chocolate!!)
• 30 Day Access to the Team Beachbody Club (Which gives you access to meal plans, tracking sheets, and tons of other awesome tools!)
• Free Shipping

The total price of the challenge pack is $245 (purchasing all of this separately would be over $325, so you are definitely getting a great deal for purchasing a challenge pack!).

I have been drinking Shakeology almost daily for 3 years now and have had amazing results with it, you will love adding this to your diet!

I’m so excited for you to be a part of this challenge with me!

Elliot, at 6 months you:

• can sit up all by yourself!
• still don’t roll over from back to tummy…you are stubborn!
• love to be outside! You especially love watching cars go by.
• love going on walks –  you are content in the stroller for about an hour.
• have 1 little nub of a tooth! I had no idea it was even close to popping through because your mood didn’t change at all…just felt it in there one day!
• LOVE solids! Your favorite is pears.
• are allergic to wheat…which is strange, since no one in our family is! You broke out in hives and one night your lips swelled up, it really scared mama!
• have very, very sensitive skin. You are allergic to all of the organic skin care products and coconut oil.
• smile ALL the time! People fall in love with you as soon as they meet you because you just grin your gummy grin at them!
• are starting to recognize people who are in your life regularly…especially your YaYa! When she is in the room you stare her down.
• love to give kisses to mama and your sock monkey. You don’t really give kisses to anyone else right now, so I am ok taking all of them!
• are trying to figure out how to move forward, but the few times you have succeeded in moving at all, you have gone backwards. Most of the time you just arch your back and put your arms behind you and you look like a penguin sliding on ice.
• still LOVE the Jumperoo!

You are the sweetest, most laid back baby and we are so very blessed to be your parents!!!

If you know me, you probably know I am not a patient person. Pregnancy was hard for me…a looooong wait that I could do nothing about. And honestly, the past 1.5-2 years have been hard for me as well…dreaming about Resonate and not really being able to do much about it. What this also means (my impatience…) is I tend to wish things/time away. For example, I love this stage with Elliot, but I am constantly looking to “what’s next” and saying things like “I am so excited for her to x, y, z…” when I really need to realize that time goes by SO fast, and I need to treasure every single moment I have with her in each stage, not wish for the next! (it’s seriously true what they say…time goes into superspeed when you have kids, it’s unbelievable…) This same feeling is true for me with Resonate. I always tell Chris “I am so excited for the day that we have our own space,” or “I am so excited to have an established children’s ministry.” You name it, I have probably said I am excited for it. I am not saying that excitement and anticipation for change is a bad thing, but I think we often get lost in looking forward and not living in the present.

I realized tonight as about 12 of the people from our core group were sitting there praying through John, talking about what God was revealing to us in the scriptures, and singing sweet worship songs that this is not a stage we will be in forever, and I need to treasure it. We are so lucky to intimately know the hearts of the people who are planting with us. People who have left churches they were probably quite comfortable in to do something that is really uncomfortable and sometimes a little bit awkward. Something that they have prayed about and are passionate about the vision God has placed on our hearts to carry out…and are expectant for what God is going to do through our little tribe of people. There will be a day when I don’t know everyone in the church by name and have their numbers programmed in my phone. These are precious, precious days. We are part of a group that Chris and I are able to be transparent with (which is so unbelievably hard when you are in leadership roles in ministry)….and I am so thankful.

So I am going to try to really treasure this time of “infancy” in my life…the nights rocking my sweet baby to sleep when she just can’t seem to get there herself. The nights in our living room with a group of people who have stepped out in faith with us. It’s a stage in my life that is a lot of work and a lot of food in my hair and all over my clothes, but it is such a precious time.

I encourage you to do the same…cherish the moment you are in right now. Stop living for things in the future, and live where God has placed you right now…passionately.

This is one of those areas of our house that I got semi-organized after we moved in, but over the past year it just got progressively worse, and it drove. me. crazy. My office is directly across from this laundry space so I look at it every time I sit down to work. Usually the curtains are closed but still…I knew the mess was there.

So, the problem here was these blue IKEA boxes. I used them at our old place in some IKEA shelving and they were great, but for the purpose of laundry room organization they were just too deep. I couldn’t find anything, small items fell to the bottom, and as you can see in the top right box…all of this combined caused something to leak all over!

And now, the after….

I have to say, I am in love. I just picked up these baskets at Target and it made a world of difference! The key here was a more shallow basket for the shelves, now I can see everything instead of having to dig in there and find it. The top shelf is my “dangerous products” like bug killer, bleach, etc…since someone is going to be on the move soon! Middle shelf is my cleaning basket as well as my laundry gear, bottom shelf is linens in one basket (until we get a real linen closet!) and toilet paper and paper towels in the other. One of the down sides of a small house is lack of storage space, so I am trying to utilize the few (small) storage spaces we have and keep them organized and easy to use.

Weekly Loss: 1.1

Total Loss: 13.3

Workouts Completed: 4….I started teaching again and have been hitting up classes at my local Y!

Days staying within caloric range: honestly, I have no idea…I need to start tracking again.

Other Updates: Not gonna lie, I have not been very disciplined on the food front, but thankfully I am back on track this week. I am SO close to my pre-pregnancy weight and am really motivated to get to my long-time goal that I set with Weight Watchers YEARS ago! So, 5 lbs to pre-preg weight and 15 lbs to my ultimate goal. I am going to do measurements this week, so I will post the inches lost next week!

This week we decided to start Elliot on solids! For the past month or so she has been sitting there mimicking chewing when anyone is eating, so I figured I might as well give it a shot! I wanted to attempt making her food, and if you know anything about me, I am NOT a cook…like, at all. Our first food was butternut squash…easy to make, and makes a lot. I checked out Wholesome Homemade Baby Food for recipes and age-appropriate suggestions, I definitely recommend checking it out!

Preheat Oven to 400 F

Cut the top of the squash and cut in half lengthwise:

Scoop out the seeds and goop…honestly, I am not sure if you are supposed to get all of the stringy parts out, but I’m not gonna lie…I was too lazy to figure out how to make that happen.

Fill baking sheet with 1-2 inches of water

Place halves “meat” side down on the tray, bake for 40 minutes or until skin is darker and starts to pucker.

Example of puckered skin for cooking illiterates like me…

Scoop out squash into blender, food processor, baby bullet, etc…I used my blender because it’s wayyyy easier to clean than a food processor.

I added a splash of water and then pulsed the blender until it all lumped together, then ran it on “puree” for about 2 minutes! TA DA!!! Baby food!

Pour into ice cube trays (I have since learned it’s actually easier to scoop it in…makes it easier to take out later!) Now, I have to be honest, I didn’t cut my squash evenly and the thicker half did not get soft enough to use the entire thing…had I cooked that side longer i definitely would have gotten 2 full trays of squash, but this time I only got 1!

Pop in the freezer and you are good to go!! So easy. I popped all of the cubes out and stored them in a freezer bag labled and dated, then when it is time to give it to her I just defrost it for 30 seconds (or 40 seconds for 2 cubes) and mix in a little bit of Happy Baby Oatmeal to thicken it up.

Side note…that ice cream container is what I lay my unfrozen bags of milk on to freeze them flat since our freezer has a bumpy bottom…works like a charm!!

Last step…taste test!

And we have a winner!! (sorry for the blurry pic…)

Weekly Loss: 1 lb

Total Loss: 12.2

Workouts Completed: 4 (what! what!!)

Days staying within caloric range: 5

Other Updates: This was a pretty good week. I really realized that I am the only reason I am not reaching my goals. Every time i decide to grab a handful of chocolate chips at the end of the day even though I am already to my calorie goal sets me back. I am not in ANY way saying it’s not ok to enjoy the things you love and have fun meals and treats (hello, I love treats), but I also realized that I am in complete control of this journey. When people say “I have no idea why I am not losing weight,” it is because they are eating more than they are burning…it’s not some phenomenon, it’s just a fact!  I am SO GLAD I had this realization this week, now I just need to continue to use self control. I am excited to get back to the classes at the gym next week – Chris is out of town this week so I wasn’t able to go to the class I just found…but, I was sore from the Thursday class until Sunday!

Be sure to check out my friend Carly’s blog…she is doing this along with me and had an awesome week!!! (knowing she is posting every week definitely keeps me accountable to posting every week!!)