Bible Journaling

I recently started a journaling Bible. The best description I have heard for Bible journaling is we are creatively representing scripture :) So I wanted to share it with my creative readers who may see this as a creative outlet to worship!

You can check out Illustrated Faith if you want to learn more, and I also follow a couple Facebook groups dedicated to lifting each other up and sharing our pages as inspiration. Search Bible Journaling and DFW Bible Journaling if you are interested :)

The first page I journaled was for our Baby. Hubby traced my tattoo onto freezer paper, and then I  traced it onto the page.

I decided to get a Bible specifically for journaling with wide margins, but I have seen plenty of people use their every day Bible. It's completely up to you how you want to express your creativity to God.

I wanted to show you what supplies I used, from top to bottom:

Tombow calligraphy pen (made in Japan, ordered from Amazon) left a little shadowing on the back but no bleed through

Sakura Pigma Micron 03 almost no shadowing and no bleed through

Sharpie ultra fine tip completely bled through

A la Mode by Hampton Art Black ink pad no shadow & no bleed through.

This is my permissions page. Basically a reminder that this Bible is for worship and if it gets messy that is ok!

Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

I chose these 3 words to put on the sides of my Bible based on Romans 15:4.

My Papa went to Heaven on April 1st. His favorite passage was Psalms 91. The last verse of Psalms 91 says, "With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." That is a very fitting verse for my Papa! He was a Pentecostal preacher, and raised multiple generations in church! He also loved to garden, at the bottom I put his 2 favorites onions and tomatoes :) He also raised chickens, and loved to tell corny jokes! I may add one of his jokes to the page ;)

This has not been an easy year, but God is holding us through it! I am very glad to have been introduced to Bible journaling! It has been a very unique way to express my love, worship, and even grief.

Let me know if you are into journaling, or if you decide to give it a try :)

Book 14 - Joshua & Judges

The 14th book on my Empty Shelf is Bible Book Study Commentary Joshua & Judges. I have been continuing my walk through the Bible using different commentaries as my study guides. I am really enjoying the journey! This commentary has some great tidbits in it & I learned a lot from it. However, the questions at the end of each chapter could have been left out. They felt like they were written because someone told the author he needed questions. But for such a tiny book, it has a lot of meaty content!

Book 12 - Deuteronomy an Introduction & Commentary

The 12th book on my Empty Shelf is Deuteronomy an Introduction & Commentary by J.A. Thompson.

This commentary made Deuteronomy a more enlightening read in my opinion. I am truly enjoying reading through the Old Testament with a commentary as my daily Bible study. How do you prefer to delve into God's word? Let's learn from each other!

"New" Clothes

 Since starting calorie counting, I have lost 16.2 lbs :) So today I decided to try on all the clothes on the "doesn't fit" side of the closet.

I added 1 pair of jeans, 1 skirt, 1 dress, & 8 shirts back into my everyday closet!!! One of the shirts still had the tags on it because I bought it thinking I would lose weight to fit into it, & now that has happened! Thank you for your encouragement! Hubby & I still have a ways to go, but we are getting there! And I have more clothes I need to get back into :)

Book 8 - The Pulpit Commentary Leviticus & Numbers

The 8th book on my Empty Shelf is "The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus & Numbers"

I finished Exodus last year, & have really enjoyed reading through the Bible using commentaries. The Pulpit Commentary is so full of great info, but that means I was working through it very slowly! I was recently given the entire set of Pulpit Commentaries (Thank you so much to The Family Who No Longer Lives Downstairs!!), & I am very excited to read through them all! However, I am going to space them out with other commentaries as well, mainly because that one took me so long to get through!

How many books have you read this year? I am currently in the middle of 4, so we shall see which ends up on the shelf next!

Book 3 "There's No Place Like Here"

The third book on my Empty Shelf is an Audio Book. I was given a small stack of audio books from a friend, & I decided to try one out while cleaning this week. I think it helped me stay productive :)

"There's No Place Like Here" by Cecelia Ahern was a good book! I would like to find it in written form so I can read it, as I feel I get more understanding when I'm the one reading.

It is about a little girl who's school mate goes missing, which leads her to panic in search every time anything goes missing, like her socks. She grows up with this panic, until she also goes missing. This book was nothing like what I was expecting just from the cover, it was so much more!

So what do you do to keep yourself on task while cleaning or doing household chores? Listening to Audio Books might become my new thing!

I would never...

I have something to admit that I never thought I would admit!

Hubby & I have been counting calories! About 4.5 months ago Hubby talked me into giving calorie counting a try after our upteenth try at South Beach fell to the wayside. I had used all the excuses before: Calories were made up by the dieting industry, I didn't want to turn all my food into a set of numbers, I didn't want to become one of those people who takes forever to order when going out because I have to calculate everything first...
Once I relented and said we could give it a shot, I told Hubby I didn't want anyone to know! I didn't want to fail yet again! But here we are 4 1/2 months later, & other than the holidays ( because calories don't count on holidays!) we have stuck to it!
I have learned alot!
Any diet can work if you stick to it. The important thing is finding a diet that fits with your lifestyle. I still feel like South Beach is a great diet, it wants you to cut unhealthy foods out of your life. Something I learned about me is, if I can't have something, then when I inevitably eat it, I feel like a failure & eat ten more things I "can't have".
With calorie counting, nothing is off limits (except a large shake from Sonic, those are more than my entire day's calorie allotment!) everything just has to fit into your day's calories. For example, the day after we started we already had date night planned for Texas Roadhouse. I love the margaritas at Texas roadhouse! So I looked up how many calories my margarita would be, & planned the rest of my day's calories so I would have enough leftover :) And that brings me to my fear of taking forever to order; we have the internet in our pockets now! I just look up where we are going on the way (Hubby usually drives, please don't do this if you are driving! Wait til you are parked) & figure out what I want & what fits into the calories I still have.
As we have gone, we have learned what the calories are for certain things we eat often. We have also said more than once, "so this is why we are fat!" when finding out the calories for things we used to eat too often, like the aforementioned large Sonic Shake!
So for the nuts & bolts of how we are doing it, we are using the My Fitness Pal app to keep track of our calories. They already have a lot of foods saved in their system, but if it isn't there, you can add it. You can also create recipes, & the app will tell you how many calories a serving is based on the ingredients. We also keep track of our exercise in the app, & it adds those calories back into our day's allotment. My exercise consists of walking Ghost a couple times a week. When it's warmer, Hubby plays tennis, & it is crazy how many calories that burns! We also use the Samsung app S Health the keep track of our steps when we are going somewhere like Six Flags or the State Fair where we will be walking a lot. It tells us how many calories are burned from how many steps we walked, & we just enter that into our calorie counter. We have found that we walk so much at these types of events, that even after all the fried food we ate at the fair, we came home with a surplus of calories! So if you want to eat everything in sight, just walk 8-10 hours a day ;)
So all that to say, "Hello, my name is Krystle, & I am a calorie counter." As of New Years Eve, I have lost 13.8 lbs, Hubby has lost 22 lbs. This is the longest we have ever stuck to a diet! We have a long way to go, but we are actually getting there instead of just talking about getting there!

2015 Empty Shelf Challenge

For 2014 I accepted the Empty Shelf Challenge, from Jon Acuff. I accepted the challenge because Smart Phone games had taken the place of my reading time at bedtime. In 2013 I read a total of 2 books, which I felt was unacceptable! In 2014 I put 30 books on my Empty Shelf!

For 2015 I have cleared off my Empty Shelf, and I would like to issue the challenge to you! If you would like to read more books this year, or if you are an avid reader already & love finding new book recommendations, join us for the 2015 Empty Shelf Challenge.
1) Join the Facebook page 2015 Empty Shelf Challenge
2) Clear off a shelf that you want to fill with books this year
3) Take a picture of your empty shelf & share it with us on our Facebook page
4) Every book you finish, add to your shelf and share the picture with us. If you would like, you can share a short review, or just let us know weather or not you liked the book or if you would recommend the book.
I also recommend the post 4 Ways to Read More Books in 2015 that Jon Acuff wrote about why he didn't read more in 2014. The one that spoke the most to me was "I thought I had to finish books I didn't like" I know I would have read more books in 2014 had I put down books I didn't like & stopped trying to get through them just to put another book on the shelf.
Hopefully, we can be challenged to read more & find new books to read from each other!
If you read on an electronic device, take a screen shot of the books cover, or of your electronic shelf as it fills up. If you are a frequenter of the Library, take a pic of the book on your shelf before you return it. Everyone can participate! :)
I look forward to seeing what kind of books everyone is enjoying!

Aparently I'm a List Person

Don't you hate it when you discover you are one of "those" people, you know the kind of people you used to not understand...

I've always thought making list's was a waste of time, just something else to add to the list of things I need to do in a day. I had heard people talk about how satisfying it is to physically check something off your list, I thought that was the silliest thing I had ever heard...

Hello my name is Krystle, and I'm apparently a list person.

It all started because my sister asked her sister & I to so a month long squat exercise with her. I wrote each day's allotted squats on my kitchen calendar so I didn't have to keep going back to the website to see what to do. I started checking off the day as I did it & realized I was looking forward to doing it so I could check it off! "Really?!" I argued with myself... but if it works, then I guess I'll give into it :)

So then I decided I needed to make a list of things to get done on the days I'm home. I am blessed with a Hubby who allows me to only work part time, so I can stay home 3 days a week and take care of our home & theoretically, make things to sell over at ScrappinArt! But I haven't been great with time management, which means the house isn't very clean, & I haven't made something, either to sell or just to be creative, in way to long! So I've made lists!

Eventually I will type them up so I can print them each day to check off, but our printer is on the fritz. So for now I will deal with terrible handwriting :) I'm sure I will tweak the lists as time goes on, but for now they are good to get me started!

Are you a list person? If not, have you tried it? Maybe you are and didn't know it ;)

Book 5

I have started working on reading through the Bible using commentary's to guide my study. I just Finished Exodus using "Shepherd's Guide - Exodus" (Yea, another book for my Empty Shelf!). I have never been consistent with my daily Bible reading, but recently I have found that having my Bible out where I see it (on the table in the library), and having a regular time (mornings) has helped me with my habit building.
What helps you remember while building good habits?

Taking on the Empty Shelf Challenge

I found The Empty Shelf Challenge on a friend's Facebook Page. I decided to take it on because I really want to read more! My IPhone  has been both a blessing & a curse, ever since I got it over 2 years ago I spend my evening playing phone games instead of reading before bed : /
So I emptied the shelf above our fireplace of all the knickknacks & I plan to fill it with books I read this year! As you can see I did leave one knickknack to work as a bookend. That is a ceramic boot Hubby made in a pottery class several years ago. I'm not the only creative one in the family :)
The first book on my shelf I just finished on New Year's Eve, it's Play Dead by Harlan Coben. This is actually Harlan Coben's first book. I have read several of his newer books, & expected this one to be not as well written since he hadn't had as much practice. I was pleasantly surprised! He never disappoints with his plot twists & turns! I will say one literary tool he used in this book that I have not seen him use in more recent works was sexual scenes. It got a little to risque for my taste, but since I know the author I continued on & the story was great! I'm not going to attempt an actual book report, mainly because it's 5 years since I was in school :) But I would recommend this book & especially this author to anyone who enjoys suspense & mystery.
If you love to read & want to challenge yourself to read more join the Empty Shelf Challenge with me!

Spice Rubbed Chicken Fingers with Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Last night for dinner I made my take on the South Beach Diet Spice Rubbed Chicken Fingers with Cilantro Dipping Sauce. You can find their exact recipe in The South Beach Diet Cookbook on page 212. Hubby & I like lots of seasonings so this was my way of making it :)

These can be grilled, I would typically use my George Foreman to cook them, or as I did this time, you can put them under the broiler. So preheat your preferred method of cooking :) I had 3 chicken breasts, so I cut them into tenders (I'm not a butcher, please excuse the lack of uniformity), then I seasoned both sides with garlic powder, ground cumin, Cajun seasoning, chili powder, and garlic salt. I let them sit soaking up the seasonings while I made the sauce.

Into the Magic Bullet (or food processor or blender, whatever you have to work with) I put 1/2 cup fresh parsley, 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup slivered almonds, 1 serrano pepper seeded, and several sprinklings of salt. I pulsed this until everything was chopped. Then I added 2 Tbsp lime juice & 2 Tbsp canola oil (I would typically use olive oil, but it is on the grocery list). Pulse several more times. Then I scooped it all into a bowl & stirred in 2 Tbsp water. Put the sauce in the fridge to meld.
Then I put the tenders under the broiler for 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes, or until the thickest piece can be cut & is white all the way through.

Serve with the sauce on the side. We had ours with a side of broccoli for a very yummy Phase 1 dinner. This recipe as I made it will feed 3 people, which means I got to have it again for lunch today :)
Let me know if you try this recipe out & what you think! We really enjoyed it!

We are South Beach Dieters

Have you ever said you were going to do something... more than once... and never really get around to doing it? Then, feel like if you tell people again, they really aren't going to believe you... Please tell me I'm not the only one!

So remember way back when I told you we were going to start a diet "soon". Then a little while later I said it again... And yet again at the beginning of 2012!

Well, believe it or not Hubby & I have actually started our diet!

We are doing the South Beach Diet, because as I have said before, I appreciate that it teaches healthy eating habits for life instead of crash dieting. We really enjoy the recipes South Beach offers, and & really enjoy cooking! So win win :) The hardest part for us is the first 2 weeks because there is a very limited diet in order to cleanse your body, but after those 2 weeks it gets much easier & less limiting.

This will take planning on my part since I'm pretty much the one in charge of what we eat, but as long as I stick to my weekly menu planning we should be good to go!

We officially started on Thursday, and Saturday morning I weighed myself, which I really don't recommend doing! Please don't be like me, weighing yourself to often can be very discouraging. But I had already lost a pound! So at least I wasn't discouraged! I will try from now on not to weigh myself more than once a week :) Of course Hubby weighed himself Sunday morning & he had already lost 6 lbs! Men can be frustrating at times ;) I threatened to start spiking his food with sugar! But in all honesty I'm very proud of him!

 Here is our before pic (do you love Arrested Development as much as we do?!)

And a better/worse one, depending how you look at it.

I hope to share some of our favorite SBD recipes with you as we go, if I can remember to take pics while cooking. That is my biggest deterrent from posting more recipes! Have you ever tried SBD? What was your experience like? We can use all the tips, tricks, encouragement, & prayer we can get!

Being Happy

I have anger issues. I've never been one to yell & throw a fit if someone upsets me, instead I would just become bitter towards them & build up unnecessary anger that I may never let go of. That is no way to live!
This past weekend, a mom I know was telling me about her experience of losing her 4 day old daughter. She told me that through the whole experience she prayed that she would not become bitter & hard. Her words impacted me. I am sometimes bitter & hard & I have never been through an experience like she has!
I am going to work on letting go of my bitterness, I know being angry at someone only hurts me! I need to be a grown up & be able to disagree with someone without it changing who I am, who God wants me to be.
God is constantly working on me! I want to let Him :)

Swimming

A while ago I wrote about life habits I was going to work on... I have not done so well with them :( But I am here to recommit to a few of them. I have bought a year long membership to an indoor swimming pool. I plan on swimming laps this year 4 days a week! This will be my exercise, and I want to stick to it! I enjoy swimming, which is why I chose this route. If I enjoy it, I'll stick to it right?!
Thursday I got on my scale (first time since the move) and I am officially at my heaviest. I have not done well with eating right since we moved, it has been to easy to grab something on the go.
I am putting this here to keep myself accountable, I do not want to write about anymore failures! :)
I weigh 192... I hope to post a better # SOON!

How To Coupon Successfully: Organizing Your Coupons

Please welcome with me The Crazy Lady Who Lives Downstairs AKA Tiffany author of His Rib. I asked her to write a guest post for us, and I am very excited about the subject she chose: Coupons! Coupons are very near and dear to my heart, & my family sometimes would not have survived without them.
You can check out His Rib for Tiffany's perspective on being a stay at home wife & mom.

How To Coupon Successfully

To see the full series, check out How to Coupon Successfully: The Start of a Series, How to Coupon Successfully: Why Coupon, and How to Coupon Successfully: Where to Get Coupons.

Once you have all your coupons cut out, it is important to organize them in a useful way. This is one of the most important steps! If you have coupons, but no simple way to organize them, then you will not be successful.

• Recipe/Coupon Box - File coupons into similar categories within your box.
• Envelops - Label envelops with different categories and separate your coupons into the appropriate envelope. Or some people just cut out the exact coupons you need and want to use then and keep them together in one envelope. The problem I have with doing it this way, is coupons last longer than one week and you may want something in the future, or it may go on sale and you can stock up.
• Expanding File or Wallet - Works a lot like the recipe/coupon box except in a file or wallet.
• 3-Ring Binder - Ok, those ideas are great, and you should use what works best for you, but personally, I LOVE this one!!! I will focus the rest of this post on how to get your binder ready.

Getting Your Binder Coupon Ready

Supplies
• 3-ring binder - at least 2''
• baseball card holders - at least 25, may be found at local office supply store, craft store, or comic book shop... my husband found them cheaper there for me :)
• 3-ring binder pencil bag - I put restaurant coupons, scissors, and a pen in the bag
• dividers for each section
Sections

You will want to divide your binder into sections. The sections will vary for each family depending on items you are in need of and use. Keep in mind, you will rarely find coupons for fruits, vegetables, and bread, so when I get those coupons I put them in a section that is located near these items in the store. I also put my sections in alphabetical order (because it would go against everything in my nature to do otherwise!), but some people put them in order of the isles in their favorite grocery store. Here are my sections:
• Baby
• Body Wash/Deodorant
• Breakfast
• Canned Items
• Cleaning Supplies
• Condiments
• Cooking Supplies
• Dairy
• Dental
• Desserts
• Drinks
• Frozen
• Hair Care
• Household (other)
• Laundry
• Meat
• Medicine
• Pasta
• Personal (other)
• Pet
• Seasonings
• Shaving Supplies
• Snacks
• Store Specific (Like Target, Walgreens, etc)
When putting my coupons away, I make sure only exact coupons are stacked in the same slot. Stacking similar coupons, but not the same, can be confusing and you may forget about the coupons in the back.

You must use a system that works for you. Figure out which one you like, and will actually use, and just DO IT!

How do you organize your coupons?

Thank you Tiffany for all that great information!
I used to use an expandable folder to organize my coupons & it was a struggle for me to finally give up & get a binder. My reasoning was that the binder would be to big to manage, but let me tell you now that I have switched shopping takes much less time! With the expandable folder I had to rifle through all the coupons in any given category to find the one I wanted to use. Now with the binder I just have to flip pages and I can see  12 coupons at a time :)
I will tell you that I organize my dividers by how I shop. The personal hygiene & cleaning coupons are in front, then the nonperishable food, and lastly the food that has to be cold.
So like Tiffany asked, tell us how you organize your coupons, or if you don't yet did Tiffany make a believer out of you?

Hate New Years Resolutions

I always try to not set specific New Years Resolutions. I've heard people say that if you don't set a goal then you won't accomplish anything, and I can understand where that sentiment is coming from. But if I start out the year saying "This Year I will..." (& it will always be something I haven't been doing yet because otherwise why would I need the goal) then when I mess up or forget, I feel like I have failed for this year & stop trying. This is an awful way to start new habits!
The only goal I stared for this year was that I wanted to take a picture a week for the photo challenge I joined. As you know I forgot to post my photo 2 weeks ago, well this week I completely forgot to take the photo! Last year when I tried to join a different photo challenge & forgot to take a photo, I didn't see the point in continuing. I had messed up, I had not taken a photo a week for 2011, so I stopped. Well if I never build a habit of taking a photo a week then I will never actually complete this challenge, no matter how many years I try. Therefore, I am going to continue. This weeks photo theme is Blue, this week I am going to take a picture of something blue & post it! Then the week after that I'll post, and the week after that...and if I forget again then I will pick it up the next week. This year I will build the habit so that next year I can actually post a photo every week!
Another habit I am going to build is healthy eating habits. Based on The South Beach Diets way of thinking I am going to start eating healthier. If I mess up & eat something very unhealthy then the next day I will eat healthy. In the past when I have started trying to eat healthy as soon as I ate one thing that I knew was bad for me I said I had failed, & therefore could start eating lots of unhealthy things since that one unhealthy food had obviously automatically destroyed my diet. This is not a healthy way of thinking & it is definitely not how The South Beach Diet teaches you to think. The purpose of The South Beach Diet is to build a healthy eating lifestyle. I will never build that lifestyle if I don't make it a habit, and I will never make it a habit if I don't pick myself back up after I have fallen.
I also want to build a habit of working out. In May I am going to Disney World! But if I go in the shape I am in I will die :( That would be a sad trip. I want to start working out so I can really enjoy our trip! I had begun working out and did it five days in a row, which for me was quite an accomplishment! Then I missed one day, and never picked it back up again :( That's really sad that I let myself out of things so easily. Reading back over this I see how bad it looks, but I'm thinking I'm probably not the only one. And that is why I wanted to share my failures with you, so I could encourage you to build habits. And so I could ask for your encouragement while I am building habits. Instead of Resolutions for 2012, lets build habits for our life! What habits are you going to build?

I forgot to post it!

As you know I'm part of a photo a week challenge this year, and last weeks theme was windows. So I took this pic:

but then I completely to post it in the group on Flickr :( And this wasn't an easy pic to take! Elias didn't understand that to take a good picture he needs to sit still! So I at least wanted to share it with you :)
This weeks theme is Old Fashioned, so I'll be thinking of a great way to display this theme on film & I'll share it with you next week :)

As you may have noticed, my banner has changed at the top of the blog. As you may remember I won a blog makeover, and this is the work in progress :) I'll tell you more about this fun process when it is all finished!

Do it to the best of your ability

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." -Martin Luther King Jr.


Thanks to Facebook, I found this quote today & I love it! No matter what tasks we are called upon to do, we should do them well. This is something I need to be reminded of from time to time, and appreciate the way Dr. King says it.


So for week 2 of the Photo Challenge the theme was modern & I remembered at 11:45 last night, 15 mins before the pic was due. So I took this pic:

My newly healed Tattoo, free of all ointment :)

This weeks assignment is Windows, and I'm going to try to plan a little better for this one & not wait til the last 15 mins. If you are interested in joining this weekly photography group see Photo Challenge for details. And let me know in the comments if you post any pics in the group so I can go check them out!

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Photo Challenge

This year I decided to join a weekly photo challenge to stretch my thinking when it comes to taking pictures, and to hopefully challenge my scrapbooking :) I actually made this decision last year, and stuck with it for about a month & a half. So here I am again at the beginning of another year, hoping to stick with the challenge this time.
I joined a Flickr group called Weekly Photo Challenge 2012 the first weeks theme was Colors, and you can see the pic I took here. Sorry, at the moment I can not put the picture directly in the blog because my camera died :(
Anyway, it is a picture of my box of 120 crayons that my mom bought me for Christmas a few years ago :) No, not when I was a child, but just a few years ago. I love crayons & coloring books! Coloring is actually the first activity that my Sister & I bonded over when my brother brought her home to "meet the family". If she loves to color then how could I not love her? Well that and all her other wonderfulness :)
So this weeks theme is Modern. I will be thinking about this & will have a pic by Sunday that is modern. If you are interested in challenging your picture taking skills, then I would like to invite you to join the Weekly Photo Challenge 2012, we are going to have fun!