Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

Oh my goodness, did I ever pray for wisdom last week! We had a work situation last week that could have spelled disaster for not just my job and my organization, but several city proxy groups throughout the community. That's one of the looming dangers of relying on entities outside your own organization - it's never 100% secure. When the situation arose, I went into battle mode. Not against people or organizations, but against whatever the enemy thought he was going to accomplish. Warrior Me gets pretty locked in when it comes to spiritual warfare. On Sunday, Pastor preached from the first 11 verses of James, how trials and testing show that we're doing the right thing, while at the same time God is ready to teach us and grow us. Growing hurts, but it's part of the natural process of maturing as a Christian. Stagnant Christians stink. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing  this,  that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  ...

My planner spread for this week is full of cheerful St. Patrick’s Day charm with rainbows, lucky gold accents, and sweet little sentiments sprinkled across the pages. I used a mix of mint, gold, and bright rainbow stickers to keep the layout festive while still leaving plenty of room to write. The stickers help mark the holiday and bring a little fun to the week without crowding the page. The left side of the spread highlights the beginning of the week with a playful “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” theme leading into St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday. I added a “Kiss Me, I’m Irish!” sticker (even though I'm not!) and a little rainbow accent to give the holiday its moment, along with a cute girl in green to keep the theme going into Wednesday. Even with those decorative touches, I kept the layout simple so the boxes stay mostly open. Since we don’t have any meetings scheduled at work right now, I’m embracing the extra white space—it makes the planner feel calm and gives me lots of room for ...

It's been quite a while since I created something that wasn't just a greeting card. Maybe that's why my heart hurt...creativity is as necessary as breathing to some of us! This Easter bag topper is hopefully the start of a crafty trend in my life again. The bag topper inspiration came from the tiny bag of tiny sheep with the tiny little ears. I already had all the paper and the bags, so this is definitely a scrap project. I started by cutting the topper itself out of white card stock. I marked it just wider than the bag and tall enough to fold in half and have plenty of space for decorating. At that size and shape, I can get two toppers from each sheet of card stock, with some left over for bookmarks.  The secret to a perfect mat is to flip the patterned paper over, line up two sides the thickness you want them, and then mark the other two sides with a pencil. Two cuts with a paper trimmer, and you have a beautiful mat. I was going to stamp an Easter phrase in the middle of...

After a trip to one of my favorite out-of-town grocery stores, I realized that I had way more lettuce in the fridge than we could possibly eat. Or so I thought.  I did some looking online and through my copious collection of cookbooks (I love alliteration) to find some fun and creative ways to use both large romaine lettuce leaves and a box of spring mix. We got through almost all of it in just a few days, and I picked up some really cool recipes to add to our menu rotation. Which ones will help you use a ton of lettuce and try something different this week? 1. Big Taco Salad Night: Brown ground beef with taco seasoning, layer tons of lettuce in big bowls, and top with the beef, shredded cheese, beans and corn, tomato, crushed tortilla chips, and sour cream and salsa. Bonus: The taco meat will reheat perfectly the next day. 2. Asian Chicken Lettuce Wrap Bowls: Cook up chicken breasts and dice them. Add in soy sauce, garlic, and ginger, plus a splash of sesame oil. Then added some s...

As a 9-month-old puppy, Cooper's not content anywhere with anything. If he's outside, he wants to be all the way over there instead of right here. If he's inside, he'd rather be with Danny than with me. And then vice versa. If he's chewing on a bone, he'd rather have the one Diesel's chewing on. And that never goes well. If he's downstairs, he'd rather be upstairs. If he's out on the deck, he'd rather be wherever that random noise just came from. There's no being content with the approximately 64 million smells within reach of his leash. There's something bigger, better, and more interesting to smell elsewhere. Leashes hold him back from his true potential in life. Apparently. Cooper's discontent is a running joke in our house, but I often think about how true it is for human beings, too. How many items are in your Amazon cart right now because you're ready to buy the next thing? Do you have a list of spring home improvement p...

It is beyond time for spring to be here, and my planner pages this week reflect that mood. I found a sticker set of all the beautiful spring colors and flowers I could find and threw them over the spread like confetti. The end result is a week of encouraging words, flowers and butterflies everywhere, and a few ladybugs tossed in just to make me smile. I started with the largest flowers first, putting the sunflower spray in one corner and a large bouquet in the opposite corner. Then each day features a saying, a flower layered over it, and a butterfly and ladybug. Those clusters are all similar but different, so they really pull your eye down the page. We have a short work week so we can attend the state tourism conference on Thursday and Friday, but I have to leave early to come host our office's putt-putt hole in the Puttin' Around Downtown event. So we'll be cramming as much day-to-day stuff as we can into the first part of the week, then the learning and experiencing in ...

It took me a while to be comfortable with the idea of Cooper being out on the deck. And not just because of the cold winter weather. Not until recently was he large enough to not fall through the slats in the railing, so that eased my concerns about the lower level of the deck, as long as he wasn't trying to do the steps. He's still pretty tiny... We had some unusually warm weather before a big storm this week, so we ventured out onto the top deck for the first time, too. He's enthralled with being outside without really being outside (he hasn't been off leash yet - he'd end up miles away in David County), so I pushed past my mental pictures of him doing a swan dive through the railing and let them out. Cooper loved every minute of it. As long as he could see Diesel and didn't have to navigate the steps, he was in paradise. There was so much to see and hear from a different perspective. He discovered birds and squirrels from up there, and they definitely became ...

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you wanted to quit absolutely everything and curl up in Jesus' arms for a while. Nothing else, just Jesus? I hope I'm not the only one. Life has been fast and loud and semi-crazy for the last year or so, and that kind of motion is overwhelming. I finally broke down last week and threatened to quit my job and all my responsibilities everywhere so I could just study my Bible all day every day. That idea was vetoed, but the point was made. When I get so busy that I'm not spending enough time with Jesus, I'm too busy. Then my schedule has to give somewhere because otherwise I'm going to fill my life with the extra stuff and not leave enough room for Him. And He is vital to my survival. But this isn't news to Jesus. He's fully aware of our capacity to put other things before Him and get distracted from what's important. As He began to form His inner circle of disciples, He took special care to call them away from w...

I'm continuing my monthly series on fudge with a delicious, decadent mint fudge perfect for the month of March. It's made in two tasty layers, then spread and chilled together to make these lovely little chunks of chocolatey happiness. I'm a fan. A big fan. If you want an intense mint flavor in the green chocolate, you'll want to use more creme-de-menthe. I used about a tablespoon, and it was beautifully subtle. Start with the tablespoon, then add more to taste, stirring and retesting each time. Ingredients:  3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 Tbsp creme-de-menthe pinch of salt Green gel food coloring 3/4 cup white chocolate chips 1. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. 2. In a large microwave safe bowl, mix the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, chopped up butter, and salt. Melt in 30-second intervals, stirring in between until fully melted and smooth. 3. Pour fudge into the prepare...

I am constantly reading - first thing int he morning when I do my Bible study, while I eat breakfast, a business book at work, usually a little when I get home after I get the puppies fed, and almost always at bedtime.  So when I only read six books in a month, I feel a little disappointed in myself. Yes, it's been a very busy few months, but I've been reading constantly, right? Yes, but to start the month of February, I dug through a 500+ page on the Pinkerton Detective Agency. It doesn't look like it in this picture, but James D. Horan wrote a multi-generational, doorstop-sized historic epic on Allan Pinkerton's efforts to fight crime. It is absolutely fascinating (I know I say that about books all the time, and I definitely mean it here), it just took ages to get through it. Having a Jesse James story right here in Ottumwa, that portion of the Pinkerton exploits was especially interesting, as were his Civil War connections. I highly recommend this book for anyone int...

Some of my favorite people ever were born in March, so I'm excited to start this brand-new month. Not to mention that two difficult months are now officially over. We'll celebrate the first day of spring, those special birthdays, and the start of several new projects around the house, and those sounds like great reasons to celebrate. I use the month-at-a-glance planner spread to keep track of my blog posts, so it's always fun to do a random splash of images and words all over these two pages. For March I used almost an entire sheet of St. Patrick's Day-themed stickers, full of shamrocks, pots of gold, and beautiful rainbows. Having a stash of seasonal stamps and stickers makes moments like this so easy. With all kinds of different sizes, shapes, and shades of green, I love the way these two pages turned out. Do you have some phrases and images saved up that would give them same look in your planner? Can you mix and match sets to create something completely new and diffe...

If there's one thing our dogs know how to do, it's chew! We keep them in constant supply of toys and bones so we don't lose our towels, books, and pillows. Yes, that's the voice of experience speaking. I'm happy to stop at the dollar store and pick up more chews if it protects our actual stuff. We've always had a challenge with Cooper's chewing. He's nine months old now, so we shouldn't be surprised that he thinks with his teeth. Last week he took all the cotton out of his Lambchop stuffy, but now it's his favorite (empty and floppy) toy in the box. I rescued this pig right before it met the same fate, and now it's an under-supervision-only chew toy. He never goes anywhere with out something to entertain himself. The couch was Diesel's escape zone before Cooper was big enough to jump up, but know it's a perching and looking out the window spot for both of them. We have a herd of about 12 deer on the property right now, so it's a f...

It's quite cool again in southern Iowa. We've been going back and forth between sunny and beautiful to cold and dreary - no wonder everyone is home sick! Welcome to February in the Midwest, I suppose. But one of the good things about chilly weather is getting to have all the comfort foods you want. This week I tried a new skillet bake that layered up sweet potatoes, ground beef, zucchini, and melted cheese. It doesn't get any more comfortable than that. I also love the presentation on this skillet. It's beautiful colors - orange, green, and gold - and the layers just meld together so well. And again ... melted cheese. The pull scooping it out of the skillet is absolutely everything. While serving it like this in a skillet is divine, you could also use an 8-inch square baking dish or a pie pan. I used the same skillet I browned the ground beef in, so that just made it even yummier. Ingredients: 1 large sweet potato, cut into thin slices 1 medium zucchini, cut into slices...

Last week was the perfect example of why I love my job. We hosted a group of tourism and hospitality professionals from all over the state for a two-day leadership conference. We started the first night with an escape room at a local attraction and then spent the next two days hearing from experts on a number of leadership topics, having great conversations, and eating meals from a ton of local restaurants. The event organizers and I have been planning this leadership symposium since September, although I will admit the time went by so very fast. Lots of things have happened and changed in that time, I've learned a lot, and we've forged some great new partnerships while having a lot of fun doing it. I also know that it was a great event because God already had it planned it all out, even better than we could have on our own. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Was I frustrated at times? Yes. Was I anxious from time to time, hoping that the timing would work, the food would show up ...

Long, long ago in a land right here where I still live today, I was a tiny person. I have proof. There is a picture of tiny Me in this little blue outfit. There are also pictures with my frog (which I love with all my heart) and my baby rattle. And there are notes in my baby book of when I received them, so these are such special memories that I get to keep. All my life I remember my mom carrying this tiny pocket knife in her purse. She might change bags for the seasons or get a new wallet, but this super-sharp little knife went everywhere she did. And now it's a special memory that I get to keep. Mom was also an expert crafter, making everything from clothes to home decor to gifts just for me. She created dozens of these tennis shoes, some in our school colors and some in my favorite shade of purple. She would chain two of them together for hanging, and others would sit and decorate a locker or bedroom shelf. The ones I have are special memories that I get to keep. I was brave eno...