Month One

These are my resolution goals for Month One to get my family healthy; mind, body, and spirit. Please feel free to join in.

The NO NO'S

No Sugar

No Fast Food

Baby steps is the name of the game here. I do not want to put my families body into a harsh shock from detoxing from everything unhealthy all at once. If we are all walking around miserable and grumpy I will be more likely to give up and just order a pizza.
This is the month to get settled into a routine of menu planning and follow thru. Sometimes life gets busy, I want to get used to rolling with the punches and eating at home anyway. This month I will :

Drink more water

Add a serving of veggies to every dinner

Focusing on portion sizes

That's it for food.

Now on to exercise

I have a 10 month old baby right now who likes all my attention. Its to the point that he can sense when I leave the room while he is sleeping. NO JOKE! So its hard to get into a gym for sure. Not to mention gyms have people in them... skinny people... That led me into looking for what I could do at home. Videos are a great option but can be expensive and get boring real quick. A great place for work outs for free is You Tube. My favorite channel is  BEFIT . Its such a great resource and free!! If you don't have the time or the space to do a full blown work out here are some other ideas to move:

March in place during commercials
Dance with the kids
Have some energetic "fun" with the hubby
Turn on music while doing chores. If you are like me you will start to boogie woogie naturally.

For the spirit

This month I will take the time to journal again. My journaling is usually me writing out my prayers to God. It really helps keep my mind from wondering. Writing in a journal like this is also fabulous for looking back and seeing how God has answered prayer. It really puts life into perspective when you see it written down.

That's it for this months goals. Achievable but life altering goals. I really pray that some of you decide to join me on this venture. We will all be better for it.

Love.
Ashley Brewer

My Resolution

I have one resolution for the year; to get healthy. Not just get skinny or lose weight but an overall health, mind, body, and soul. So for the foreseeable future I will be chronicling it here on my blog in a (hopefully) motivational and accessible way. The mom way. A family way. No harsh detox or abrupt kid upsetting changes. A slow purposeful lifestyle change to get my family and I in good health. Here's to 2014 and baby steps to a healthy life!

I'm going to let it shine

Do you remember that nursery song This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine? It's a cute little song we sing as children in church but we brush it off as childrens play when we become adults. Today as I was trying to write a post on expanding the kingdom of God when this song started running through my head. It was Gods way of telling me how to bring people to Him, by letting my light shine. Lets all let our light (Jesus) shine!

We need to let Jesus shine out of us and not hide it. Easier said then done in the society we live in today. Jesus is soo not cool these days. Even his name is met with hate. I would go as far as to say that Christians are almost considered a hate group by some! So what do we do? How can we let our light shine? How can we not be embarrassed of our faith and let Jesus shine through? What are ways to show Jesus?

If God is love (1 John 4:8) then Jesus is love which means we should let love shine through us.
What is love? It is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on it's own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Yikes conviction city!!! Think about it, the world is opposite of all that. Scrolling through the social websites will show us that. It will also show us that love is what people crave most of all.

Whats better then showing love, being all the things love is. Standing out and shining with the Light of Jesus! Who doesn't want to be around that or want to be that themselves.

The word is God and Jesus is the word living. John 1:1, 14. So in order to share Jesus we should know the word of God. Just pick up a Bible and read. Ask God to speak to you through His words. You might also buy a devotional or download a devotional app on your smartphone to help you get into the word. Please do not overwhelm yourself with feeling the need to be an immediate Bible scholar. Read where He leads, a verse, a chapter, a book, a testament. Just start reading. Once you get into the word and talking to God about it, you will start living it.When you start living it people will notice and thats just what we want the world to see, the Word alive!

Well thats all I can share today. I dont think the baby can take me looking at this computer any longer :)

Love,
Ashley Brewer

Super Easy Farm House Plates

I love this project because it was so simple and so cheap. Here is how you can make it!

Its so simple I can do it!!

Buy Plates. I bought mine from the $ store. They are the best place to shop for  thrifty crafts!!

The paint and foam brush I bought at my local super center. This is special enamel paint and was about $4.00 with tax. I chose black but you can choose from whatever is available to you.

Make sure to measure the inner circumference of the plate. As you can see mine was 7"

Use your awesome Silhouette Cameo to cut out your farm animal. I made sure to size the circle to fit snugly in the inner plate circle. This made it super simple to make sure my animals sat centered on the plate. 

If you don't have a Silhouette Cameo, you could use a stencil from a craft store or hand cut one out using an Exacto knife.

Tape on your stencil using painters tape. I used card stock for this project but would use vinyl for a crisper edge next time.

I stippled the paint on so not to get under the paint under the paper and to get a fun texture. If using vinyl you could just use normal paint strokes.

VERY IMPORTANT: 

Do not let paint dry with stencil. The paint will come up with the stencil if you don't take it off right after you have painted! I had to redo the chicken plate because of this...

Let your plates dry according to paint manufactures instructions. I let mine air dry for an hour then baked in an unpreheated oven set to 350* for an hour. 

I hung these plates using good old fashioned plate hangers from the hardware store.

Please read your paint to see if you can eat off your plates. Mine are not food safe just pretty to look at,

The total cost for this project was about $10.00. I have to say I am really proud of myself here. It makes me feel great to decorate my home with items I have made myself. Extra bonus if they are cheap! Also I made another cute kitchen decoration that I am saving to show you later, but wait till you see it because it's adorable too.

This was my first craft tutorial and I hope you enjoyed it, because it was fun to make for you. If you have any questions as in the comments and i will help the best I can.

Love,

Ashley Brewer