Tag-Archive for » Company Girl Coffee «

Feb

Okay Company Girls – grab a big mug and pull up a chair for a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate). I think I’ll make some coffee cake this morning cuz I always feel like baking when they predict a “Major Winter Storm” is coming…

It’s been a busy week – Curly has had another bout with asthma, but the breathing treatments really help head off the bad stuff we’ve dealt with in previous years. I’ve been able to get some studying done, and we got to visit the library TWICE this week, so it’s been a good week.

As I’ve been studying and listening to lectures in my counseling classes this week, we’ve started digging into the variety of mental disorders and issues that people deal with. There are books filled with the study of these mental disorders – some physiological, some psychological, and some a mixture of both.

As we’ve studied and discussed our impressions and lessons learned, it is becoming so apparent how important it is to be walking in the Spirit every day – whether you’re a mom at home raising kids or whether you’re a professional counselor working with people on a professional level.

Do you know the Spirit?

I had to admit in one of my discussion boards that honestly – I have not known the Holy Spirit much in my life. It is not that I am not aware of His presence – but I have not fully developed a relationship with Him. How odd to come to that realization.

I know God the Father – Abba, the I AM, Lord God Almighty.

I know Jesus Christ – my Saviour, my Redeemer and King, the Lamb of God, the Risen One.

But the Spirit? Hmmmmm. The Comforter. The one who speaks with groanings on my behalf to the Father. And yeah, that’s where it has pretty well been for many years.

>So in my studies and in my personal prayer time, I’m learning to pray in a way that speaks to the Spirit, too. It’s like a whole new world is opening up.

Kinda reminds me of when I went snorkeling off Grand Cayman Island 8 years ago. I was on a cruise with my best friend, and we were part of a group that went out on a boat to go snorkeling and swimming with sting rays. First, we all got out of the boat in about 15 feet of water. We were swimming around getting used to the feel of the water (and the fact that I was swimming in water where the possibility of a shark coming by was not entirely out of the question).

I could see the shadows of rocks at the bottom of the ocean, dark and grey reflecting in the clear blue water. But when I put my face in the water, it was like an EXPLOSION of color came shining through my snorkel mask. I could see almost every color possible. It was literally breathtaking and I could not get enough of it. The coral was brilliant and the sun’s ray’s would come shining through the water and highlight new spots of color and shapes. The salty water was warm and inviting, and all thoughts of a shark literally dissolved in the incredible beauty I was seeing for the first time.

Taking my face out of the water, the sun was so bright and all the views that I previously thought were just gorgeous paled in comparison to the riot of color I’d just seen.

I think that’s what the Holy Spirit does for us. We’re floating along (literally sometimes) and everything is wonderful and beautiful, and then we start to take a deeper look and the Spirit reveals amazing discovery. We haven’t changed position – we haven’t gone anywhere new.

Maybe we’re reading that same passage of Scripture we’ve read many times for years – and all of a sudden, the Spirit reveals a new nugget of truth – and it’s like God’s Word opens up a completely new view of Who He Is and it’s breathtaking and awe-inspiring and totally amazing.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to learn how to practically minister to others – in real, tangible ways – but even moreso for the opportunity to GO DEEPER in my relationship with the Lord in the process.

(I don’t have digi versions of my pics from snorkeling or I’d post them. I’ll just have to go snorkeling again sometime and take new ones…)

And yes, I DID go swimming with sting rays. I held one as a matter of fact. It was TOTALLY awesome. But that’s a story for another time.

Be sure to visit Home Sanctuary for more Company Girl Coffee conversations…

Jan

Is it Friday already?

queenmommy

Hey Company Girls – Where did this week go? Well, pull up a chair – I’ve got bagels and strawberry spread, and can put the kettle on for tea. I’ve been drinking LOTS of tea this week for a sore through, cough / laryngitis. The girls have been sick, and I caught it cuz they love to share with me. lol. The tea & honey has been great, along with the horehound candy which is very soothing to a sore throat!

It’s been a whirlwind week. Classes start up again on Monday – and I’ve got 2 counseling classes (debating adding a 3rd class later) that I’m VERY excited about. I’m printing out the instructor notes and am intrigued about the topics. The one course is Counseling for Women and one of Beth Moore’s books, A Woman and Her God: Life-Enriching Messages (Extraordinary Women), is the text. VERY cool! Along with DVD lectures from the university, I’ll be learning more about women’s issues (and myself, for sure) and am really excited about writing a paper for this class. =) (I’m a big nerd when it comes to writing papers!)

Georgie seemed to have an allergic reaction to a prescribed antibiotic and it was a bit scary. After 2 doses, she seemed to develop hives, so the on-call dr advised us to give her Benadryl and she was good. This morning we took her to her peds office and gave her another dose of antibiotic: NO reaction. =) So we’re still watching her. It’s an antibiotic in the family of Penicillin, and we can’t just assume anything – we’ll have to watch and see what happens. Both she & Curly have ear infections and eye/sinus yuck, so that’s how I got my lovely stuff…

And I made a major breakthrough in my kitchen this week, and I’m really proud of keeping up with it. I cleaned my desk (which happens to be in my kitchen) and have been able to maintain my reorganized kitchen for the entire week! That is a serious milestone for me. I’ve been getting dishes washed & put away and although I’m not always going to bed with a shiny sink, it does get shined once a day, so I’m pleased with that.

I’ve also had the great opportunity to participate in an online study of Ruth called A Faith Like Ruth’s with Amy Bayliss, of Women’s Ministry Online. The second session was yesterday, and it was really good! Amy provides a printable outline and her sessions are recorded. Worth checking out for sure! There are more sessions to come so check her link for more info. Here’s info for Session One and here’s Session Two.

And along those same lines, I saw that Tricia of Handfuls of Purpose, has also posted two weeks worth of the study of the book of Ruth, too, called Reflections of Ruth! You can copy and paste her posts into your word processing or text programs for printing out yourself. She’s broken down a study for each day of the week, and I highly recommend checking them out. I’ve copied them onto pages for printing, and think I’ll follow up Amy’s study with this study from Tricia. Here’s Week One and here’s Week Two.

Oh and if you love having a household notebook, Tricia has designed 8.5×11″ planner pages! I love Graceworks and enjoy the beautiful design, layout, and practicality of her pages. I’m THRILLED that she’s got notebook size pages and she’s planning to produce more. These pages are available for DOWNLOAD for printing at home – yahoo! – and she’s got a special for January. For more info, click here.

So that’s it for this week. Feel free to visit the rest of the Company Girls at Home Sanctuary today…

Category: Faith, Home, Uncategorized Tags: Bible Study, Company Girl Coffee, Friday 15 Comments

Jan

Fa-fa-fa-fa-reezin’ Friday

queenmommy

Hey Coffee Girls – grab a cup of Joe and a toasted bagel or cinnamon raisin English muffin with cream cheese and settle in. We’re buried under snow.

Okay – we’re not entirely buried under. Our sidewalk was shoveled last night and driveway was snow-blowed. But still – we’ve got lots of snow. It is a snow day – schools all around us are closed, closing or on delay. We will be playing in the snow later this morning. yay!

LOVING. IT.

I have been getting a workout shoveling the driveway and sidewalk – have done that twice in just a few days – so that’s been a good thing. Other than the back twinges, they’ve been really good workouts.

I’m getting my written recipes organized into ONE Recipe Notebook (okay – one main notebook and one holiday notebook) and that feels really good. I’m just copying recipes from 3×5 cards onto 6×5 cards (2 to a page) and inserting them into page protectors in a 3 ring binder. I am keeping the keepsake recipe cards – written out by my grandmother or my mother – and using 4×6 photo page protectors for those. With tabbed section dividers – my recipe collection is all in one place. As opposed to a 3 ring binder, a 3×5 file, and a 4×6 recipe book… Condensing and eliminating. Whew!

This has been a hard week for me, though. Very emotional. My hormones are still wacky. NOT. FUN. For anyone in my house. I’m up – I’m down – I’m turned around. Can’t think straight. Keep losing stuff. And just feeling – in general – icky. Half exhausted, normal cycles have yet to return so it’s wearing on me. Not to mention the feelings and emotions I’m still processing after my miscarriage. I keep wondering how long this is going to last. I’m not rushing through – it’s not even been two months yet – but the physical stuff just keeps me going round & round… (I’m avoiding birth control pills which always wreak havoc on me despite the promise of a return to normal cycles. My body is not normal anyway and I just have to let time heal…) It’s a little like postpartum depression – only there’s no “partum.”

Have had some funny moments, too. I’m telling you what – my girls have kept me in stitches for the past couple of weeks. They’re both far too smart for their age and keep saying stuff that just blows me away.

Example: Tonight Roy came home with a pair of snowboots for Georgie from a gal at work. They’re cute black snowboots with glittery black fur inside. So Curly sees them and assumes they are for her. I tell her they are for Georgie and she is kinda miffed. Once Georgie puts them on, Curly catches my eye, then hangs her head and says, “I’m a little disappointed.”

Oh my word. And Curly has been doing some exercises every day. Jumping jacks, windmills, sit ups, push ups, toe touches and more. She goes through her routine while I count. We keep adding new things like stairs. Tomorrow – I think I’ll join her.

We’ve been talking about eating “helfy” more often and telling her that too much sugar will make her sick and that healthy foods will make her strong is starting to sink in. If I tell her that she can have only one cookie because two have too much sugar – she’s getting it. And we’re choosing apples and carrots and popcorn and other things instead…

YAY!

This is good for us because we need to make changes to our lifestyle. Move more. Eat less.

My one GOAL for 2010 is to lose 5 lbs every month. I have far more than 60 lbs to lose, but to say I have to lose 60 lbs this year is pretty overwhelming. So, I decided to set a goal to lose 5 lbs per month. That’s just over 1 lb per week.

Manageable. Doable. No excuse-able…

So there it is – my week in a nutshell.

Linking up with Under Grace and Over Coffee, too!

Category: Uncategorized Tags: 2010 Goals, Company Girl Coffee, Healthy Living, Kitchen Organization, miscarriage, postpartum depression, pregnancy loss, Weight Loss 25 Comments

Jan

Happy Friday Coffee Girls!

queenmommy

Happy New Year to all of you!

What a year 2009 was… Next week I’ll be featuring some popular posts and recaps for 2009, so feel free to visit every day…

We were incredibly blessed this week with a new van. It was a surprising, and gorgeous, answer to prayer. Surprising because we have really only just started praying and hadn’t started looking – and God wonderfully provided a van – PURPLE to boot. Okay – it’s a deep purple – but it matches my new winter coat and my favorite pens, so I’m a stylin’ soccer mom. LOL

Spending the day with my family – it’s SNOWING outside – and beautiful! We played in the snow yesterday – the girls LOVED it – build little snowmen and threw snowballs. Georgie was making snow angels and Curly got into a big snowball fight with her Uncle Robbie and cousins, Larry & Moe…

We’ll be watching the Rose Bowl Parade today (love it) and praying that the Buckeyes WIN the Rose Bowl!

GO BUCKS!

Hoping to make a cheese ball dip and some other appetizer goodies. Taking it easy and enjoying each other.

Category: Uncategorized Tags: Company Girl Coffee, Happy New Year 15 Comments

Dec

Happy Coffee Day! Friday Shots

queenmommy

Hello Coffee Gals – bring a big mug and I’ll fix you right up this morning with a fresh brewed cup of coffee and some monster cookies!

So today I have MUCH due for my Algebra class. It ends at midnight tonight and I am pushing upward and onward to get a “C” in the class. It’s not looking good, but I can’t give up yet.

To start things off – you might want to read this post at Mommies Coffee Break to find out about an AWESOME COMPUTER giveaway at MckMama’s My Charming Kids.

Next – I wanted to let you know that a good online friend of mine, Lara, is selling several websites. She is the owner & operator of Moms of Faith (one of my all time favorite Christian websites) and she’s selling several of her other websites. You can find more information here. They’re definitely worth checking out. From All Natural Beauty, and Recipe Finder Cooking Magazine to Green Christian Network – if you’re looking to establish or expand your online presence, one of these sites may help!

While I’m at it – I also want to put a shout out for my friend, Heather Bixler, who owns Christian Stay at Home Moms. She has been a real inspiration to me online and I feel like we’re friends although we’ve never met. I will have the opportunity to do some book reviews for CSAHM soon and am looking forward to working with her more. She not only has a great online presence – but she’s also a great website designer and offers really affordable website hosting packages, too. (I’m an affiliate for both sites – check out my disclosure policy here.)

I got some cookies made this week – No Bakes (yummo!) and Monster Cookies. I’m making a cheese ball (my grandma’s recipe) to take to my mom’s family reunion this weekend, barring any bad weather. The drive is only an hour away, but Roy is on call and can’t go and I really hate the idea of being stranded on the side of the road with 2 girls should bad weather occur. Needless to say – Cheese balls signal “holidays” to me for some reason, and I’m looking forward to spending time with uncles, aunts & cousins I usually only get to see once a year. My grandpa will be there – and Curly can’t stop talking about seeing her “GrandPapa”…

I’ve been enjoying the heck out of my new Keurig brewer and already discovered my favorite K-cup: Green Mountain Coffee’s Nantucket Blend. I won’t admit to the number of cups I’ve had in less than 2 weeks, but needless to say, I’ll be a fan for life or until the blend is no longer available… Oh – and Roy brought home a bottle of GFIC’s new holiday liquid creamer, White Chocolate Raspberry, which is DIVINE! We couldn’t find any more bottles for an entire week, and then one night we came home and each of us had found a bottle at different stores. =) So that has helped me get through the week and wrap up for my final!

Then it’s on to wrapping Christmas presents!!! Thanks for visiting – have a great weekend!

Category: Coffee, Contests & Giveaways, Family, Food, Home Tags: Algebra, Christian Stay at Home Moms, Coffee, Company Girl Coffee, CSAHM, Girly Website Hosting, Keurig, Moms of Faith 7 Comments

Dec

Freezin’ Our Tails Off

queenmommy

Oh company girls, please let me fix a cup of coffee for you this morning! And I think I still have some Cream Cheese Coffee Cake to share with you, too. So pull up a chair and bundle up – cuz Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Indeed, winter HAS arrived in my neck of the woods. Cold, snowy, FREEZING winter. I love the snow – I love it when it snows like it did yesterday.

What I DON’T like about winter is the cold that bites through layers of clothing and cups of coffee… That cold wind that literally steals your breath when it hits your face. Brrrrrrr! That’s the part of winter that I just don’t enjoy. Whether I’m living in Alaska or Northcentral Ohio!

But it’s here, and the gloves and mittens and boots are coming out in full force. I get to bundle up my girls like Ralphie’s little brother, Randy!

Speaking of which – I have to confess that despite my extreme love of Christmas, I cannot get into the “spirit” this year. I’m coming to the end of my Algebra class and I’m struggling to get the work DONE, let alone PASS… Makes me question everything I’ve been doing. Everything I’ve invested in my attempt to complete my bachelor’s degree. We’re talking SERIOUS brain meltdown with Algebra, and the trials and struggles I’ve faced this particular semester and the loss of our pregnancy – it’s enough to make me want to say – FORGET THIS!

School usually comes easy to me. Even if I don’t fully grasp a subject, I can bluff my way through major papers and essays to score a decent grade. A’s and B’s are my typical outcome for classes.

Except for Math.

There’s no bluffing. You either “Get it” or you don’t – and I fall into the category of “DON’T.”

It’s not for lack of effort – although I must admit, at times Algebra is the very last thing I wanted to look at – let alone study. But I have spent more time in this class – looking for help online, buying extra books in an attempt to find a reasonable explanation for factoring a cubed polynomial – so I can master the subject.

And it sucks. Literally. It sucks the joy from my life. The fun from my holiday spirit. I can’t even bring myself to get our Christmas tree out because I have to think about Algebra.

And yet I can’t get to the computer to accomplish the work. Not from lack of desire or want – but because I’m a wife & mom. And I have girls who won’t take naps when I schedule homework time. When I plan to focus on this thing called “Math” that only engineers or scientists end up needing to use. And I’m still very tired and have had a lot of physical “stuff” going on that has kept me from it.

So I question its purpose. Which does not justify a failing grade by any means. Or even the thoughts of quitting – which haunt me at 3:30 a.m. some mornings.

I have even been looking for a spiritual lesson here. But all I can come up with is this: Algebra makes me appreciate my family. Makes me want to spend time with them and enjoy them. Helps me understand the purpose for laundry and dishes and vacuuming with a good attitude.

If nothing else, I appreciate all the other parts of my life – but with one week to go – I have little time to spare to enjoy any of those other parts.

So, it’s off to the races – with tons of prayer for understanding and wisdom to comprehend – and my last-ditch efforts to pass a class on my way to obtain a piece of paper that says “Bachelor of Science.”

All the while questioning my purpose for doing so.

I’m not complaining, really. I’m pondering and I’m at a crossroads and I’m praying.

The one sparkling, ray of hope in this endless tunnel is the beautiful evening we spent together as a family, while Curly participated in her VERY FIRST school program! It was her PreK Christmas program and it was one of the most delightful experiences so far I’ve had as a mother.

Watching my 4 year old singing and doing motions to Christmas songs with her school friends and teachers. What a blessing it was. She is a spirited, animated girl who LOVES to sing and it showed. How awesome it was to see her humongous personality coming out right there on those little risers. Singing about Jesus and how He loves us and being thankful for Christmas. I had tears in my eyes through most of it, when I wasn’t laughing in sheer delight at her full-body participation. I think the best way to describe it was “animated diva” as my friend, Carol, described it. (Her grandson, Cooper, is one of Curly’s buddies at school.) Whew! What a blessing.

It did remind me of the sheer joy I had when I was in kid’s choir at church. But last night was about Curly and her joy for singing and praising God. It was enough to make me think – “Algebra is NOTHING” in this journey of life. I can do my best, and that’s all I can do – but moments like last night are what makes life so worthwhile!!!

Category: Faith, Family, Holidays, Home, Life Tags: Algebra, College degree, Company Girl Coffee, higher education 8 Comments

Nov

A New Season

queenmommy

TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted,

A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up,

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance… Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (Amplified)

Hello friends and Coffee Girls! I can’t believe Friday is here again.

I have to announce that I am no longer pregnant. It has been a rough week with a lot of emotional ups and downs, but like everything in life, it is a new season and a new time.

Name an emotion and I’ve probably experienced it (or soon will). Sadness. Anger. Disappointment. Confusion. Relief. Exhaustion. Joy.

There are many moments already crystallized in my mind, and I at least have one ultrasound scan to keep as a memory.

My mother in law has been a tremendous help this week – keeping the girls almost all day every day while I’ve been resting or recovering. And Roy, while riding this emotional roller coaster with me, is off today so we can all have time together. For that I am very grateful.

The one thing I’ve already been able to grab onto during this time, is that no matter what happens in my life or how I feel – God never changes. He is still Holy, He is still Lovely and He is still GOOD.

He can take my fists beating on His chest in anger because He is strong.

He can brave the storm of my accusing questions and bewildered confusion because He is Peace.

He can hold me while I cry my eyes out because He is steadfast and faithful.

He can comfort me while I mourn, because He knows the Plans He has for me.

And this is just one season in life. One moment in time. And regardless of my feelings or my circumstances – He is God. While I wander through a million emotions, He is walking right next to me and His Spirit is speaking to my heart, even as the evil one launches fiery darts at my faith.

I will mourn and I will question. And I also know that a season will come when I will laugh and when I will dance.

God is good. All the time.

There Will Be A Day