• Marriage

    Happy Valentines Day + Some Last Minute Ideas To Show You Care

    February 14, 2017

    Can I be honest and tell you guys that I actually really don’t like Valentines Day all that much? And not for the typical reasons. For three years in a row before I met my husband I was broken up with the week before Valentines Day – almost to the day. It’s like a cursed week for me when it comes to relationships, I just don’t get it haha. In turn this makes it a cursed holiday for me too, even though I’m married now and my husband isn’t going to “break up” with me.

    But even still with not particularly loving Valentine’s Day, I’m not opposed to my husband showing me he loves me on this day. I’m also not against showing him that I care about him either. So if you’re still looking for some ways to show your significant other you care that won’t break the bank or take too long to prepare, rest assured I have some ideas for us!

     

    \\ 1 \\ Leave love notes around the house.

    Tommy did this for me once and it was so fun and special to come home and find little notes that made me smile all over the house.

     

    // 2 // Make him his favorite dinner.

    This is one of my favorite ways to show Tommy that I care. It’s an obvious one I think but it really does show you care because you are going out-of-the-way to prep and cook something that is special to him. Bonus points if you cook him something that you don’t particularly love!

     

    \\ 3 \\ Suggest to join him to do his favorite hobby.

    When we do this we are really speaking to their love language because men feel really connected to someone when they are sharing a mutual interest. For Tommy this would be skateboarding or working out with him. But it could be as easy as suggesting to watch his favorite movie with him too.

     

    // 4 // Set up a scavenger hunt with a gift at the end or even just some treats.

    Scavenger hunts are just really fun and I think anyone would appreciate the thought that goes into setting them up. If you got a gift for your boyfriend/husband you can have the scavenger hunt lead to the gift, otherwise make some cookies or cupcakes or even just buy some candy and put a box of candy at each hiding place. I don’t know any man who doesn’t love sweet treats!

     

    \\ 5 \\ Go on a blindfold date

    Tommy and I did this once and it was so much fun. Tell him to put a blindfold on and start driving and whenever you get to a stop sign ask him to tell you which way to go and whenever he decides to tell you guys to stop, have a date there! It’s super fun and definitely a break in routine if you guys always go to the same places all the time and want to switch things up a bit.

    I think that any of these things will really show your boyfriend/husband that you care and they’re perfect for just adding to whatever you already have planned for tonight. What are some of your last-minute ideas to show that you care? I’m always looking for new ways to show Tommy I care. 🙂

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  • Coffee Dates,  Life

    Let’s Have Coffee | Vol. 6

    February 13, 2017

    If we were having coffee, I would probably invite you over to my little apartment and brew some pour over coffee for you. It is my new favorite and I want to share all of the deliciousness with you, that is if you like coffee of course. (If not I would offer you some tea because I have lots of that too!)

    If we were having coffee, I would share with you that since our coffee date a few months ago where I shared how I thought this winter was going to be a tough one, I would say that it has been, but in ways that I hadn’t expected it to be. Isn’t that always how life is though?

    If we were having coffee, I would also say that I think spring is right around the corner and I just can’t wait to get outside and enjoy the warmth again. Ever since quitting my job to work from home, it has been tough to not really leave the house regularly. I’m thinking that once it gets warmer and I can go for walks or hikes that will help a bunch.

    If we were having coffee, I would ask you what’s going on in your life. How has the winter been? What’s new in your life?

    If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I just got my order of essential oils on Friday and am already in love with them. I’m still definitely in the process of learning all the different ways to use them but I find them so fascinating. Have you heard of essential oils? Do you use them? I’d love to hear how if you do.

    If we were having coffee, I would tell you that my husband and I just tried yoga for the first time yesterday. We did a 35 minute video off of YouTube and it was so much fun and so therapeutic. I feel like it’s the perfect way to workout for me. It isn’t too hard and it really makes you feel good afterwards, especially for me since I’m home not moving around most of the day so it really loosens up my muscles and feels great. If you have a desk job I would highly suggest you try it. My husband and I are doing a 30 day challenge. You can check it out here if you’re interested.

    If we were having coffee, I would ask you how you build real intentional community, whether that be online or offline. I am really struggling with getting really connected with other Christians and am also really shy so I am really struggling to put myself out there. My husband and I just switched churches to attend a smaller one in hopes that it will be easier to get really connected. I would love to hear how you build connections though because I need all the tips.

    If we were having coffee, I would just say thank you for spending time with me. I really needed a friend to just listen and be there for me. I can’t wait for next time!

    Today I am linking up with Erin Salmon, where we have coffee every second Monday of every month. Come join in with us, we’d love to have you!

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  • Life

    Friday Favorites | Vol. 1

    February 10, 2017

    I wanted to start a new little series here called Friday Favorites, which is a link up that I follow that I want to start to join in on. (I will include more information about it at the end of the post in case you want to join us as well!) The general idea is just to share your favorite things or moments over the past week. I’m only going to do this every other week so I will share my favorite moments over the last two weeks. I want to do this so that my blog is a little more personal too because that’s my favorite thing about reading other blogs. I love getting to know the writer so this is my way of letting you in on my day-to-day. 🙂 Hope you enjoy.

    On the right would be an example of just how excited I am about getting these oils & on the left is the kit I received minus the diffuser.

    I just received my essential oils that I ordered at the beginning of the month and I’m already in love. I already have tried the Stress Away blend and it really works!! I feel so calm and at ease. I can’t wait to keep experimenting and sharing about my essential oil journey. Has anyone else tried essential oils? I’d love to hear about your experience too! Leave a comment or email me. 🙂

     

    We had a snow day yesterday and I got to spend the whole day with Tommy and it felt like a weekend. We had a nice time just relaxing together, catching up on sleep, and getting our Netflix binges in. I just love days where you have an excuse to skip out on responsibilities and do nothing. I’m really soaking up this time because I know that once we have kids everything will be much, much different.

     

    My favorite part about being a stay-at-home wife is that I have so much more time and energy to really meal plan and cook fun dinners. I’ve been trying my best to keep the dinners pretty healthy but sometimes we like to splurge too and this dinner above was so, so yummy. I made homemade potato wedge fries with cheese, and cheeseburgers with sautéed onions.

     

    This is such a boring one but I feel too good about it not to share, haha! I cleaned out our pantry last week (which was on my February goals!) and just looking at it makes me so happy. I really should have taken a before picture because it’s hard to appreciate the organization that it is without knowing what it looked like before, but just take my word for it, it was a MESS. I love being able to just open the pantry and see everything without having to move things around.

     

    Tommy and I bought a pour over coffee maker probably about six months ago and I just tried a new kind of coffee in it and it was to die for. (We have this coffee maker and I used GEVALIA Colombian Coffee.) It was really strong but without being bitter at all. So good.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Today I am linking up with wonderful ladies! Come join us! 🙂

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  • Wedding

    Zinhobls Say I Do: Getting Ready

    February 9, 2017

    Hi friends. 🙂 I’m back again to share more of our wedding pictures. I know this is a bit out-of-order because I want to share the pictures of us getting ready now, while I had already shared our ceremony pictures last week. These pictures are really fun and I’m really excited to show you them.

     

    These just might be my favorite pictures of the whole day because they’re so candid and fun. Wishing we could just go back and relive the day!

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  • Faith

    How To Get The Most Out Of Bible Studying

    February 8, 2017

    Good morning! I wanted to share some tips today about how I study the bible. I am currently reading through the bible from Genesis to Revelation (and have been for about a year and a half) and am currently in Jeremiah. I have learned a few things along the way and wanted to share in hopes that any of these tips may help someone else.

    Pray Beforehand

    When it comes to faith, we cannot do anything outside of God. No matter how smart we are, we will never understand God’s word if he doesn’t first open our eyes to it. Before I start reading I usually say a quick little prayer asking God to reveal himself to me. I ask him to open my eyes to what he wants to teach me today and to help me see him in the text. I think this is really helpful because it reminds me that reading God’s word is important because it is about Jesus and that the reason I should be reading in the first place is to learn more about him.

    Get Comfy

    This one may sound a little silly but I think it is the step that helps me stay consistent with reading my bible. What I mean by this is to create a little space that you feel comfortable in. For me it’s at my desk, with a cup of coffee, and sometimes with a candle lit. I look forward to mornings where I get to do this.

    Be Reasonable

    Don’t expect yourself to sit down and read half of a book in one sitting. This is what kept me from staying consistent for so long. I had it in my head that I had to sit down and spend so much time with God and read as much as I could at a time, but the problem with that was that I barely ever had a large chunk of time to do this. And while I definitely think there is a time to sit down and spend large chunks of time studying the word, maybe this isn’t a realistic thing to do every day. Instead set a reasonable amount of scripture to read as a standard, maybe a chapter or two a day. I set out to read two chapters a day and it really helps because I don’t feel overwhelmed by it.

    Get A Bible You Enjoy

    We are always more excited about doing something if it involves something that we really like. I just bought this Coloring Bible last month and it makes reading the bible fun. It’s also important to get a Bible with a translation that you can understand very easily. Having a Bible that is confusing will definitely make it harder to want to stay consistent.

    Journal

    You can either journal about what you just read in your Bible or about what is going on in your life at the time, or a combination of both! Either are really helpful honestly. I usually just journal about what is going on in my life and how God has answered prayers. This is such a special thing between me and God because I can look back in a year and see exactly how I was feeling and how God showed up. If you don’t do this now I highly suggest that you do. It’s so so awesome.

    Be Consistent

    Try your best to be consistent about reading. You will get the most out of understanding what is going on if you read every day. But I also noticed that if we try our best to be consistent, it gives God the opportunity to really show up. I think it’s important because it’s showing God that he is most important in our lives. Obviously I’m not saying that if you don’t carve out time for him every day then he isn’t your priority because I know myself that there have been seasons where I just really struggled with that. What I am saying is that if we give God the time to show up, even if were skeptical if he will, or if we’ll really understand what we’re reading, I’ve come to learn that he shows up in ways that we would never imagine. Sometimes it’s just giving you a great mood to start the day. Sometimes it’s just opening your eyes to things in a way you’ve never seen them before. Or sometimes it’s just opening our eyes to the blessing that are already in our lives. If you commit to God to show him that he is most important, he will show up, that’s all I do know.

    Give Yourself Grace

    While staying consistent is obviously important, I think it is equally important that we give ourselves grace when we fall short too. God knows that we aren’t going to do this perfectly and we shouldn’t expect ourselves too either. At first it might be really slow going, you might only read your Bible once a week, but the key to this is don’t give up because you didn’t meet your goal. God will still show up. Keep at it until it becomes a habit.

    These are just a few tips that have helped me along the way. When life gets busy, I usually tend to not be as consistent with reading my bible. But at the same time, if life is so busy that I don’t have time to really spend with God, I know that sometime has to change. It’s important to do whatever we can to make sure God is our priority because he really is our lifeline and if we don’t have time for him, everything else in our life is going to suffer as well.

    What tips do you have for Bible studying? I’d love to know!

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  • Life

    5 Of My Favorite Teas

    February 7, 2017

    If you’ve been reading along with my blog for any time at all you might know that I absolutely love, love, love coffee. That’s an obvious one I think, but did you know that I also love tea? I think tea is great because it’s so healthy and it really helps me stay hydrated throughout the day since it’s so yummy. I really love learning more about the bloggers that I follow so I thought I would share with you guys some of my favorite teas that I drink. (And in case you didn’t believe me that I love both tea and coffee, let me share with you what my cabinet looks like. 😉 As you can see, our coffee and tea collections keep growing and overtaking the rest of the shelves, pretty soon this whole cabinet will be filled with only coffee and tea, haha!) This post contains affiliate links.

    5 of My Favorite Teas

    1 | Yogi Tea Green Tea Kombucha

    This tea is mine and my husbands absolute favorite tea. We drink it almost every day. There’s also a Decaf version too, which I buy most of the time. It tastes great with just a little bit of honey. It has a nice light flavor on its own, that’s really refreshing along with spearmint, which I think is what makes it amazing.

    2 | Yogi Refreshing Mint Vital Energy Tea

    This is another one of my absolute favorite teas. It has such a great taste if you love mint. I think it’s absolutely delicious and it has almost as much caffeine as coffee, but gives you energy without making you feel all jittery. If I drink coffee in the afternoon I usually get very jittery, but if I need a little boost, I’ll reach for a cup of this instead. I’ve given it to a few people at work and they loved it as well.

    3 | Yogi Tea Calming

    I think it’s obvious what my favorite brand of tea is. 😉 (And no Yogi Tea is not sponsoring this, haha!) As it says on this box, it really, really does help with anxiety. To be honest with you, it’s not my favorite flavor, though it’s not that bad either, but I mostly drink this tea just for help with anxiety. I am a total skeptic when it comes to whether or not things like this work with anxiety, but this tea totally does. It kind of puts you in a zen mood. I love it.

    4 | Yogi Tea Stomach Ease

    I only just started drinking this when I get an upset stomach, but it really helps me feel better. It has a combination of different types of herbs, such as ginger, that really help settle my stomach when it’s upset. Again it doesn’t really have the greatest flavor, but it really works! I have a sensitive stomach, so when it’s acting up I brew a cup of this tea and sip it slowly, and usually by the end of the cup my stomach is feeling better.

    5 | Bigelow Sweet Dreams Herbal Tea

    Last but not least, the tea I drink before I go to sleep. Because of the chamomile, this tea really helps me to get sleepy right before bed. I usually drink it about an hour before bed, because otherwise you’ll wake up having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Also I get very hot at night and drinking hot tea doesn’t help that either, so if I drink it about an hour before I bed I can cool off too. It has a really yummy flavor because it is mixed with peppermint and I just love peppermint.

    So those are my favorite teas that I drink regularly. Which one sounds like it would be the most fitting for you? Do you have certain teas that you just love? I’d love to hear suggestions, I’m always looking for more yummy teas! 🙂

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