So, last summer I ventured into the wonderful world of couponing. I will definitely be posting some wonderful shopping trips here in the future and wanted to start with this amazing trip I had at CVS this week.


I got everything pictured for just $9.72 out of pocket.

Here's the breakdown:

1st Trasaction -
Bought 2 Crest Toothpastes
Used 2 $1 off coupons
Used $4 ECB from last week
Paid $1.04 out of pocket.
Got back $6.58 ECB as advertised (Still had $6 ECB from last week and got a suprise $5 ECB printed out as well)

2nd Transaction -
Bought everything else
Used coupons totaling $6.20 of savings
Used remaining $6 ECB from last week
Used $6.58 ECB I got from the 1st transaction as well as the $5 surprise ECB
Paid $8.68 out of pocket
Got back $10 ECB and i also have a $3 off $15 to use next time, as well.

I love couponing!!

For those of you who happen to stumble upon this blog or are still among the followers listed and actually see this post come up in your feed, I am in the process of changing some things. There will soon be regular posts and I am working out a schedule.

Tentatively what can be expected:

Monday Meditations - a devotional thought to start the week. God should be first in our life and I would like to start out the week here talking about Him and what He is showing me from His Word.

Book Worm Wednesday - I love to read! So, each Wednesday I will be posting a new book review or maybe a teaser section from a book I'm reading or just something general about reading/writing. These will most often be linked to my book blog - One Rainy Afternoon.

Friday is the day I can't fully decide what to do with. I like the idea of a Frugal Friday and posting either deals I have gotten that week or something I may have seen that I would like to pass on. However, I'm not sure that I want that restriction. So, I am also thinking about just making it a Fun Friday and posting something fun that happened that week, which could include a great shopping trip, a craft with my daughter, something we did around the house, a movie we watched, etc. If you have any thoughts/suggestions about this day please leave a comment below. Thanks!

As always I want everything posted here to be acceptable in the sight of God, our Father and it is my goal to glorify Him through this.

I hope to 'see' some of you here often, especially once all of the changes are officially in place. I expect that to happen in the next week, maybe two.

I had no idea when I wrote my last post what the Lord had in store for us that week.

That night we had a pipe burst under our driveway. We didn't know it was under the driveway at first, but after a week and a half of digging and insanely high estimates from plumbers we figured out that we needed to just replace our waterline in a new place. My wonderful husband and some family and friends were able to run the line into the house via a different route, so that none of the pipe is under concrete now.

So, after staying with friends for a week and a half we have running water again with no leaks. A few things in our lives were delayed due to this, but God was so good to us along the way. Friendships grew and some were reestablished.

Praise the Lord!!

"God says there is no darkness in Him, and while I don't know completely what that means, I'm reminded of what Scripture says in Isaiah 45:3, "I will give you the treasures of darkness." Could this be what God means when He says that the darkness is as light? Could it mean that sometimes the lessons we learn in the dark are the truest and the brightest lights of revelation of who Jesus truly is? I do know that the lessons I've learned in the dark this year have enlightened me and have allowed me to know Jesus in a new way."

I read this this morning on a blog and wanted to share it with my friends. It seems like there has been so much darkness in people's lives lately. So much sorrow, grief, disappointment, and the list goes on. I hope that when those things have happened in your life that you have seen The Light of the World shining through.

Pay close attention to the part that is highlighted in red. I think that is very true. I think when we are in our darkest moments Christ's light shines even brighter. Light seems brightest when there is total darkness as its backdrop. In those times we are not trying to fix the problem on our own because we've most likely given up. And it is at those moments we can rest assured that it is truly and purely Christ shining. Step back and stop trying to figure things out on your own. God knows the way.

Jer 29:11-14
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'"

Are you allowing Christ to fully shine in your darkest moments and following that light to greater and better things? Or are you sitting back and cowering in the corners too afraid of what may lie ahead?

Take the hand of the Savior and follow His light. "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. " John 12:46

Ok, so I thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread house with Emma this year. Keep in mind that she is not quite 3 and not much help. I think in the future I will be waiting until she can be of more assistance. My hand hurt so bad by the end. I think I made my icing too hard, which was good for sticking things, but horrible for my hands. It was the first one I'd ever done, so I am hoping for better results in the future.

However, Emma loved it and keeps showing everyone that comes over 'her house'.

Getting started:


The goodies:





Finished product:








Finished product with Emma (you can tell by her face what she was helping with) =)


All in all it was an exhausting 2 1/2 hours, but well spent. It's a cute little house and I had a great time with my little muncher.

This year we had our 2nd annual Cookie Day. A friend and I get together and bake for hours upon hours and make containers of cookies to give away to people at our church. This year we baked for approximately 15 hours total. Lots of yummy cookies were made as well as some fond memories. My friend's sister calls us the Julie Rae Show. I look forward to many more years of Cookie Days.

Here are some picture highlights from our day:







My little helper rolling the Snickerdoodles:

And finally, the finished product:



I hope you've been inspired to make some cookies. They're such a fun, easy gift to give to friends and I haven't met someone who doesn't like Christmas cookies, so they're sure to be a hit!

I can't believe the holidays have been here and gone already. I'm just now finding the time to sit down and share some of our Christmas traditions and decorations with you, so bear with me.

First, here is a little tour of my Christmas decorations:

Starting with the star of the season ~ our tree: (not the best picture of it, but I love it anyway)



The next best part ~ the mantle:



Some of my snowmen friends for you all to meet:





(I love this one, but it came out a little blurry, so I changed it to b&w)



This is one of my new guys this year:


Our new family ornament this year:



Emma's new ornament this year (I painted it for her):



I hope you enjoyed the little tour of my Christmas decorations. On to posts about cookies and gingerbread houses and such. See you soon!

Since I last posted so much has happened. First, I have the pictures from the farm we went to last month. A week after our trip to the farm I lost my job. I was hoping to have more time to spend on here, but that has not happened yet. My family and I are doing well. It is, of course, very tight here, but the Lord was preparing me for this with the Trust Me post and events that happened shortly before. I have been LOVING the time with my daughter. My husband wants me to stay at home, so I am trying my hand at a few things while looking for a part time job through online companies. Please be praying for us through this difficult, yet wonderful, time in our lives. God is so good and certainly hasn't given us more than we can handle. He has shown Himself to be in control of the situation over and over again.

So, here are the pictures from the farm:

My daughter:


She was very hesitant to touch any of the animals at the petting zoo.




This is my favorite:


Emma went down the big slide with her daddy.



We went to a nearby town for the afternoon and got some great photos in their town square. I love small towns!!

And for those of you who may have been wondering what we all look like:

I hope you enjoyed our pictures. We had a great time. If you're ever in the North Georgia mountains area I highly recommend the little town of Dahlonega. A lot of cute little shops (a great old book store) and a great hole-in-the-wall pizza place (literally - it's in a store and only has 3 tables).

I'll be back soon with some Christmas posts.

I haven't been on much lately, but have a few posts floating around in my head which I hope to share this weekend. For now, I wanted to share the best sign I have ever seen:



I absolutely LOVE chocolate dipped strawberries and enjoyed the one my husband bought for me from this wonderful little shop in Dahlonega - Paul Thomas Chocolates. More pictures to come from our trip to the North Georgia mountains last Friday. We had a blast!!

Disclaimer - I am not sharing this for pity, just wanting to share some background to get to the lessons I am learning right now. Our God IS Great!

Some of you know of the struggles I have had over the last few years that kind of peaked this summer. For those of you who don't - here is a "brief" synopsis:

Almost 4 1/2 years ago I found out I was pregnant with our first child. At my first appointment I found out I had had a missed miscarriage and needed to have a D & C. 5 months later I found out I was pregnant again. Once again I had a missed miscarriage and needed another D & C. Decided to take a break on trying and focus on figuring out what was wrong with my body that it couldn't sustain pregnancies. That is when I was diagnosed with PCOS and started to be treated with medication. 7 months later I found out I was pregnant again. With much fear and trembling we proceeded. I had to take hormones for the first trimester b/c part of the problem we have definitely figured out is that my body does not produce enough progesterone on its own. After the first trimester I'm good to go. Anyway, on with the journey. 7 months into the pregnancy I was put on bedrest due to high blood pressure (this I believe was totally caused by job-related stress, cause it was back down by the time she was born). At that time we also found out she was breech and we started to plan for a c-section. A week before the scheduled c-section she turned around, but could not 'engage', so we proceeded with the c-section. 2 months after she was born I started my medication again and continued on my journey. Things were quiet for about a year and a half and then I started having bad cramping and pain every month. My doctor suspected endometriosis and suggested we start trying to get pregnant again. After trying for about 6 months and with the pain getting worse and worse he decided to do laprascopic surgery to take a look and ended up removing some endometriosis. A month later i was pregnant again. At 7 1/2 weeks I had a spontaneous miscarriage - this time twins. I had already miscarried some and went to the dr - he did an ultrasound and found that there was still a baby there, but 2 days later I miscarried that one as well. That was in July of this year. And now we are at the present.

I have struggled so much over the last couple of months. Mainly with fear. Fear of getting pregnant. Fear of not getting pregnant. Fear of endometriosis returning. Just plain fear. As a result of this fear I have at times been distant from my God, my husband, my friends, and the list goes on. Its been an up and down struggle. Every time I think I've gotten 'there' (wherever that might be) I realize I am still afraid and have picked up the burden that I thought was at the foot of the cross.

This weekend I found out 3 of my friends are pregnant and spent an evening with someone who talked a lot about abortion, at times lumping miscarriages in with it. I was so sick to my stomach I didn't eat but 2 bites of the $20 meal I was paying for. That is when I realized I had picked up my burden again.

Searching for some encouragement the Lord kept leading me back to Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." I've heard these verses so many times before and often quoted them to others, but hadn't thought to apply them to this situation. In the Proverbs 31 devotional yesterday, When Healing Never Comes, Wendy Blight described her inward battle as their family deals with her daughter having scoliosis. In that devotional, she paraphrased these verses and personalized them to their situation. Here is mine:

Julie, trust Me with all of your heart. Do not depend on the knowledge of doctors, pharmacists, friends, or even yourself. Do not lean on your fears. Acknowledge Me. Depend on Me, Julie. My Timing. My Power. My Omniscience. My Strength. My Love. I promised to direct your path, and I have. This is the path I have led you to follow. Trust Me. [bold taken directly from Wendy's paraphrase]

It's the part that reads "This is the path I have led you to follow" that I struggle with the most and begin to ask "Why?". Why would you do this to someone, Lord? And then I hear His gentle voice reminding me that that isn't for me to know right now. It's just part of His perfect plan. Trust Me. Such a simple phrase, but I can almost audibly hear God whispering that in my ear.

I encourage anyone who might be reading this to also paraphrase these verses. As I wrote that I could almost feel the peace wash over me. God is in control.

I am also taken back to Philippians 4:6-8:
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

When we leave our problems at the foot of the cross, according to these verses, God will guard your heart and your mind. The definition of guard is to keep safe from harm or danger; protect; watch over. He will protect you. Sometimes being protected means not having all the answers. Allow God to protect you by not taking back what should be left at the foot of the cross. Let Him keep control and watch over you.

Well, this post seems to be plenty long, so I won't keep your attention any longer. If anyone reading this has something similar that I could be praying for, please leave a comment. If you don't want your story to be public, just put a note at the beginning that you don't wish for it to be published.

God loves you, my friend. Lean into His everlasting arms and relinquish control of whatever your holding on to.

Trust Me.

GIVEAWAY!!!

This one is a wonderful Thanksgiving giveaway. Here's a picture of what you could win.




Go visit Melissa's Heart & Home.

There's a great giveaway going on at Bella Casa. She just received a $100 room makeover from HomeGoods and decided to do her half bath. Check out her cute makeover here. She is giving away a $100 giftcard to HomeGoods.

Here's how to enter:

Leave a comment telling me what you think of my makeover (one entry).
Leave a comment telling me how to get the gunky sticker stuff off of my mirror (one comment).
Leave a comment telling me what room you'd like to makeover (one entry).
Blog about this giveaway on your blog ( 4 entries, leave 4 comments, provide link).
Tweet about this giveaway on twitter (1 entry, provide link).


Good Luck!

Visit Tracy at Beneath My Heart for a wonderful giveaway! Just follow this link and leave a comment. Below is a picture of what you can win. These look so good! I wish I had official office space at home to decorate. . .





Good Luck!