Café con leche with Stevia!

Today is the second day in a row that we have not had real coffee in the house...Plans to go to the store have turned into a Saturday morning lazy fest. We do, however, have milk and I did, however, find some instant coffee lurking in our cupboards. While I can see all of our Seattle friends rolling their eyes as they read this, just wait until you try it. I, the Seattle coffee snob happen to think this is quite delicious. While it doesn't replace my regular morning cup of coffee, it is a treat now and then that I enjoy. Our dear friends, Luke and Janell Ibsen taught us how to make this South American coffee drink when we were on vacation with them before we had Mason and I had forgotten I had bought some instant coffee to make up a batch here and there.

Mmmmm. Café con leche. Delicious!

Now, Café con leche is made up of scalded milk prepared over the stove, equal parts of sugar ( which means a cup of milk to a cup of sugar) and instant coffee to look/taste. Not exactly healthy....but I modified by using 1/4 cup stevia to a cup of milk and nonfat milk and is t.a.s.t.y. So tasty, in fact that I made my self two cups. For my second cup, I added some pumpkin syrup I made the other day with stevia, so both of my cups were sugar free. Totally worth the effort.

Thanks Luke and Janell for passing on your coffee tradition and saving my Saturday. Everyone should make themselves a cup right now. Go ahead, I dare you.

The Balancing Act

One hand on the baby, one hand on the phone, the other on the computer.  I think I might need to grow another hand... This is how I spent today.  It's been a while since I have started a new job.  This is my first time working home with a baby.  Work so far is going well, but I jumped into a busy season fire.  The good news is that seasons will come and go.  Some things will get easier, some might get more difficult.  I definitely still think the benefits and joys of working at home outweigh the costs of having to go into work.

Things learned today:

1. Compartmentalize, compartmentalize, compartmentalize.  This will be my new daily mantra.  
2. Take multivitamin and do get a workout in during the very FIRST part of the day.  Later than that ain't happenin Momma.
3. Lunch and playtime tastes sweeter when the rest of your day has been busy.  I think this will be a good thing for me.

Nightie night!

Blessings are Great Responsibilities

It's 10pm.  The house is clean.  There are loads of laundry and dishes going and the little one is in bed.  My feet and eyes are tired but tonight my head and heart are filled with joy as I think about the fact that I have the blessed opportunity to work at home while I spend time with my son, Mason tomorrow and every day.  If you had asked me one year ago where I wanted to be the answer to the question would have been here...right here exactly where I am standing.  I'm at home with my husband and my baby.  I'm living my dream, right now.

Today I kept thinking about how important it will be to be responsible with all the freedom that I have.  I remembered this thought also comes from a verse in Luke 12:48.  I like to read a lot from The Message.  In Luke 12:35 - 48, Jesus tells a Parable as instruction to His disciples about what it means to live like "the Master" is coming back.  In Luke 12:48 he closes with, "Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!" ~ (MSG).  I want to live each day accountable to the blessings and the responsibilities that I have been entrusted with by showing a sense of gratitude and discipline so that I can enjoy all the freedoms I am allowed with it.

With that in mind I made a Daily Schedule for myself to follow every day.  I made it knowing that there may have to be some flexibility on some days, but I will use it as an outline to get things done, and also to put boundaries around my different responsibilities so that I can enjoy my beautiful freedoms, like play times with my son or freedom to stop my work day at around 4:30 so that I can make and enjoy dinner with my family or go the rec center and play. 

I'll let you know how it goes.  It may need a little adjusting and I don't think I'll always be up at 5:00am sharp, but I think it will be a good tool for me to use.  I created a template online and put my own schedule inside.  Originally I thought I would put a schedule outline to share, but decided not to include that part for you.  For myself, I used chunks of one to two hours throughout the day to increase my productivity, but also to allow for feedings and play times with my 6 month old.  Time and schedules are so individual to different families.  I did, however, create a downloadable document for the daily schedule background where you can add your own schedule in writing or via computer if you wish.  I printed out a copy for myself and I also saved one on my computer desktop so that it's always in front of me.  Click on my printables tab above or click here if you would like to make one of your own.  I feel inspired by pretty things so having a pretty schedule to look at made me quite happy.

Now, I'm going to take my tired and responsible self to bed.  5:00am comes early when you have to wake up in the middle of the night. ;)

It's Just Me

As all of my friends and family roll their eyes as I begin another blog venture, I beleive I have finally found something here, at least for my own peace of mind.  I have had such a struggle with settling in on one thing in life.  It seems like I have so many interests and of coarse, not enough time. Don't get me wrong, I have found myself in many situations where I've felt like I had become sucessful at the things I set out to do in my own right, but I've spent much of my early adult life looking for where I really fit....

About a week ago as I was out for a run, I was pondering this fact.  I was meant for something great, right?  At least I've always wanted to believe that, don't we all?  There must be some reason God made me this way, I thought. When I look around and see others who have found their "niche in life", I can't help but feel a bit lost.  Some people even make good money doing the things that they love.  As a child and throughout my life, I have always had a problem with finishing things I started.  I have NEVER had a problem with passion and excitement for getting started with anything, quite the contrary.  I wanted to do EVERYTHING!  I wanted to try everything.  I still do.  I ended the run encouraged and the conversation with myself and God left me asking yet another question.  Is it really so bad that I have so many interests?  Isn't there a way that I can celebrate all of those things in some way or another? Can't I keep learning and growing in the things I wish to no matter what stage I find myself at in life? This question led me to start this blog.  I've always dreamed of having a successful blog.  I've started so many blogs with the idea that I could keep going on one subject, but the fact is that I would always stop before I got started.  I never seemed to have enough time or mental energy to pour myself into one topic.  I'd move on to something else and I would always feel like a failure before I got to the second or third post.  I did it over and over again, all in the name of becoming a pro blogger at something I was not a pro at.  This time, I plan to it differently.  I plan to be me.  Not incredible, always just a little bit divided, always wanting to be the best I can be, always wanting to write about what is near and dear to my heart.  This blog will include anything and everything in my life that I'm  currently "working" on.  Faith, family, creating, writing, cooking, photography, and just about everything else. 

Now that I can finally get real with you, let the blogging begin.  I'm starting here, Sunday September 2nd, day one.  I'll take this one day at a time.