Healthy Lunch Meal Prep Week 2

Hey Guys, Hope the last post about meal prep was helpful and eliminated some of the anxiety that can come with trying to meal prep for the first time.

Today, I spent another hour meal prepping for the week. After my Easter indulgences yesterday, staying on track this week is really important!!

So here goes.

Healthy Lunch Meal Prep- Week 2

What you'll need

Bag of chicken breast

salad mix

squash

zucchini

Brown whole grain rice

Mrs Dash- ( I used original, fiesta lime and garlic herb)

Olive oil

and cottage cheese

Step 1- Defrost your chicken and cut into thin pieces. I filleted mine and cut into small chunks.

Brush lightly with olive oil, sprinkle on Mrs Dash seasoning of choice. I did two different flavors for the week.

Cook on 400 for Approx 25min or until done.

(TIP- wait to cook chicken til after you cook the veggies. This way you can be putting together your containers while the chicken cooks, since it takes longer.)

Step 2- Slice squash and Zucchini, lay on lined and sprayed baking sheet. Then spray a light coat of olive oil over top and sprinkle on seasonings.

Broil on the middle rack for approx 10 min until done to your liking. I don't like mine super mushy. So I don't cook mine very long. 

Step 3- While waiting for your veggies to cook. Go ahead and measure out your rice (1/2cup), your salad greens (2cups), and cottage cheese (1/2cup).

 And top your salad with whatever other veggies you'd like, I used cucumber slices and carrot shavings.

Step 4- Now that your veggies are done- go ahead and divide into 1cup portions and put into containers.

(other side note- I had left over green beans from last week..so I just added them to one of the containers)

Step 5- Now that your chicken is done. Weigh out into 4-6oz portions and place in containers.

While my chicken was cooking, I went ahead and cut up a cauliflower so I'd have veggies to snack on in between meals this week.

And Batta Bing Batta Boom- You're done and have lunches ready for the week ahead!!!

(Side Note- I didn't include the step of making your rice because I had a container of rice pre-made and in the frig. So you'll want to boil some rice at the beginning of the process.)

Like I've said before, meal prepping seems so hard and daunting. But it's really very simple. This process took me just under 1 hour from start to finish AND I played with my one year old during the process.

If you've ever said to yourself, "Man, I wish I could meal prep" I dare you to JUST DO IT!!! Give it a try and surprise yourself at just how easy it can be to stay on track with eating right throughout your week!!

Happy Eating! 

XOXO

Healthy Lunch Meal Prep Made Easy

Meal prepping has become a pretty big thing. There are countless blogs, pinterest pins and websites dedicated just to the art of meal prepping. If you're anything like me, you love the idea of meal prepping, you see the benefits, you know it would help you stay on track with healthy eating during your busy week but you're overwhelmed with the wealth of information, recipes, how to's etc.

I have been lunch meal prepping for a little over a month now and Love Love Love how it's helped me stay on track. I've stayed on track to the tune of being down two pants sizes..... can I get a "raise the roof". (no? ok, I'll do it myself......*happy dance...raise the roof...Happy dance*)
Phew, ok, I'm done celebrating. Back to business.

Taking the time to meal prep my lunches has saved me time, calories and mental block as to what to make for lunch at that moment when I'm absolutely starving and am battling between what my taste buds want and what my fitness goals need. Have you been there??? Those battles for me usually resulted in a grilled cheese sandwich and chips. :( not such a great option.

I hear people say things like, "I don't have time to meal prep" or "I really want to, but I don't know where to start." Sometimes I hear..."Doesn't that get expensive eating dinner type foods at lunch"??

So, I decided to break it down for you to show you how easy and cheap lunch meal prepping really is and hopefully help you on your road to making this a routine that can assist you with your health and fitness goals.

FIRST, Buy your ingredients
                                      
For this weeks meals. I bought
-Bag of Chicken Breasts
-Bag of Steamable Green Beans (I got these from walmart)
-Bag of Sweet Potatoes
-Cottage Cheese
-Salad Greens
-Eggs
-Light Italian Dressing

I bought all these items from Aldi and spent just about $15.00 for them all.  I wont use everything in it's entirety for this week. So the break down per meal is less than $3.75. Not bad. Pretty affordable right?

Ok.

Step 1.
Place either 3-4 LARGE chicken breasts (or 5-6 small ones) In crock pot and cover with 3/4 bottle of italian dressing. Turn on High and let cook for 4-5 hours.
You will want the remainder of the dressing for your salads this week.

Step 2.Prepare Sweet Potatoes- Poke three small holes in each potato and wrap with foil. Place on baking sheet and cook on 450 for 1 hour. When your timer goes off, check and see if they are slightly squeezable. If you can squeeze them with your over mitt on, then they are done. I always cook more than I need for just my meals so I can grab them easily for snacks or dinners as well. *Plus my kids LOOOOVE sweet potatoes*

Step 3- Boil your eggs- I usually boil several because they are a great snack..full of protein. *great for throwing in your gym bag for after your workouts*

Step 4- Cook your steamable green beans in the microwave. 

Step5- While your chicken is cooking, your potatoes are baking and your eggs are boiling. Measure out your salad, Cottage Cheese and Green beans into your containers.

For this I use

1/2 c Cottage Cheese

2 cups of Salad Mix (topped with chopped cucumbers)

1 cup Green beans

I decided I wanted a lil variety for the week. So I am making two containers with salad to put my chicken on, and two containers with a starch item(my sweet potato) and veggies.

The end result will look like this \/

                                                       \/

By then your eggs should be done boiling- So peal two to add to your containers.

Put your containers in the frig.

Then all you have to do is wait for your potatoes and your chicken to be done.

Once they are done. Place one medium potato in your containers and 4-6oz of chicken. Be sure to spoon out some of your left over dressing over the chicken.

(I don't add the chicken to my salad, til I'm ready to eat it. Sometimes, I like it cold, sometimes I like it warmed up and I can't warm it up if it's already on the lettuce. So I store the left over's separately.)

And Voila!! 4 healthy lunch meals that are prepped and ready for a quick grab.

All the Prep Time only took me about 45 minutes today. From start to finish. That of course is not counting the cook time for the potatoes and chicken. But while those are cooking, I can do whatever else I need to get done. 

As you can see, this method is easy, cheap, and quick. 

I know we all lead busy lives, with work, families, kids, sports...whatever it is you do.

But one thing I've learned is that, If I have 1 hour of time to sit and do anything like watch t.v, read, sew, look through facebook, or pinterest 

I HAVE TIME TO MEAL PREP!

Seriously, we all HAVE the time, somewhere within our week. The question is will we TAKE the time to make this skill and healthy routine a habit for our lives.

If you've ever wanted to try lunch meal prepping, I encourage you to try it. You wont regret it!!!

I believe in you. You CAN do it!!

Happy Cooking!! XOXO

What Are We Striving For?

Have you ever wondered if what you're striving for in life is worth it? Have you dared ask yourself if at the core of your being you truly care about what is important?

I think for me, I always assume that my deepest desires are pure and righteous..that somewhere beneath the fleshliness of my sinful nature my "TRUE" self, cares about what truly matters in life.  But the more I ask myself the hard questions the more I realize that underneath the fleshliness of my sinful nature...I am still sinful. I am a selfish, selfish human being....and guess what, You are too.

We are all selfish. Human nature, makes us selfish, and as if our inherent nature wasn't bad enough we have a world telling us how much we 'deserve'. How much we 'need' and just how far we should be willing to go to get 'it'. 

You deserve a big house, you deserve fashionable clothes, you deserve to spend money on YOU, you've earned it. Do we really "earn" anything in life that should only be used for us without any thought to how we might use what we've been given to help others?? 

These are hard questions and let me just say, it's NOT fun when you realize that you really would rather buy a new spring scarf than give your money to a homeless person. Or that you really don't know if you can spare $30 a month to support a child in India because what if you get invited out to lunch by a girlfriend and don't have the money?? What if you see a new purse, new shoes for your kid or need a haircut?? It sounds so stupid but these are thoughts I have been guilty of thinking in my life.

I'd feel conviction and the prodding of the Holy Spirit asking me to sacrifice and ALLLLLL the things I've ever wanted to purchase in my whole entire life flashes before my eyes in that moment. And in a moment of complete honesty...There have been times I've said no to God. I've walked away from what I KNOW was Gods tug upon my heart and all so I could buy something for ME that I don't even remember buying at this point.

It may not be material things that we strive for. It may be to be the perfect mom, or the perfect wife. It may be to be physically fit or advance in our careers. None of those things are "bad". But is it making a difference to someone outside of what is important to "us"??

Maybe we strive for compliments, or the affirmation of others. Maybe we want to be popular, in the limelight or #1 at something. We work so hard at so many things day after day and we get so consumed with our own little world that we forget that there is a big picture out there.

There is a world that is lost, hungry, thirsty, dying, and alone.

And we shut our eyes and close our doors and continue on with our lives of Target runs and football practice, new outfits and new jobs. We forget, we don't see, we don't change and what we are so desperately striving to succeed at is only benefiting us. 

Does what you're striving for really matter?? Is it helping anyone outside of your 4 walls? Are you willing to sacrifice so that someone else can live??

I recently saw this video and it's really powerful. Please take a minute to watch it and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. Gods agenda is PEOPLE! Investing in People is the most important thing we could do.

Be Blessed~~

Jamie Eason LIVE FIT TRAINER Week 4

Ok WOAH....it's been a long time since I've blogged. Phew, I'm a major slacker...ok not really. Quite a bit has been going on.

First, I went to MEXICO for a missions trip and that was AWESOME. I need to write a good post about my experience. Immediately after returning home from that, my hubs went on a work trip and left me with two kiddos for a week(which is actually fine, but I like to act like it's torture. :) Shhh don't tell) THEN my bestie from Kansas came to celebrate my 30th birthday!!!! WOOT.

So, Needless to say. Things have been a tad busy. I successfully completed two week of the program before leaving for mexico, and since I've been back. I've finished the last two week of Phase 1. So I'm feeling pretty stellar. 

Here are some things I've been learning from week 4!!!!

1. Weight is really just a number.

Ok, so we always hear this and we see the cute little pics on Pinterest of the scale that tells you you're beautiful instead of your weight and we all unite with a resounding AMEN at the "thought" of the number on the scale not really mattering.

BUUUUUT, at the end of the day, when we hop on our trusty little friend the number DOES MATTER to us. I don't know why. It just does, and when you feel like you're working really hard to make good choices and be diligent at the gym it's incredibly discouraging when the scale doesn't move....at all..... Or even worse, when it moves in the wrong direction.

I had an experience last week (on weigh in day) where I literally wanted to throw the scale across the room and cuss at someone or something because after weeks of what feels like hard work I was seeing no numeric progress on that blasted little torture machine that I am so painfully attached to.

So, in an effort to restore order and sanity to our home my husband made a rash decision and HID THE SCALE!!!!! Yes, that's right, He hid it. When he told me I felt panic and relief all at the same time. Honestly, I thought, "oh that's sweet, but in a few days I'll find it and things will return to normal."

Surprisingly enough, I've not missed it AT ALL. In fact, I feel so much relief that it doesn't stare at me every morning and I am able to actually notice some visible results that are not scale related that I truly feel like I was unable to see because I'd get so discouraged about that dreadful number!!

This week, without the scale. I've really been able to see that the number on the scale is really just a number and I'm not ok with my mood, motivation and contentment with myself being defined by something that really makes no difference at all, to anyone...but me. 

2. Weight loss doesn't always equal fat loss, and no weight change doesn't always equal no change.

Phew, that's a mouth full. Here's what I mean.

I've spent the last 5 years of my life trying to "lose weight". The number on the scale was all that mattered. And though I was successful many times in actually lowering that number. It didn't mean my body fat was at a healthy percentage, it didn't make me strong and it didn't mean I was fit or toned. It just meant the number on the scale went down and I was probably wearing a smaller size.

Lately, especially with this program. The scale has not been moving much. But it doesn't mean my body isn't changing. With the absence of the scale this week I decided to look back on my measurements over the last year. I may not be "lighter" on the scale, but I've lost inches. I can actually feel muscle in my arms for the first time like....ever! 

I'm determined to change my body this year. Turning 30 has really lit a fire under me to get into shape. I want to be healthy, I want to be strong. In doing so, I will naturally thin out, even if that means the number on the scale doesn't move.

3. I'm stronger than I ever thought

It's only been 4 weeks of training and I even took a two week break in the middle for all the craziness, but I can already see my strength improving. I'm moving up in my weights all the time and let me tell ya, IT FEELS AWESOME!

It feels so good to go from a 5lb dumbbell to a 15lb dumbbell. I remember thinking that I would die with several sets of 5lber's and now I'm doing multiple reps with 15lbs. 

There really is no limit to what we can do, when we push our bodies past what is comfortable. I am so thankful this program has gotten me out of my cardio rut...don't get me wrong, I LOVE cardio. I think it's fun. But I'm capable of more, and now I actually enjoy doing weights! :)

4. PREPLANNING IS A MUST

"When you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

You may have heard this before but it's true. When I don't take time to meal plan or look over my workouts ahead of time. It's much easier to not do the right thing.

Things that have helped me so much is premaking some easy go to food items.

This week I made

Ground Chicken Meatballs

Carrot Cake Protein Bars

 Protein pancakes

and a crockpot of Italian Dressing Chicken Breast (not pictured)

These Items really help me stay on track. It's easy to grab a quick healthy breakfast, snack or lunch when I have things pre-made.

So PLAN PLAN PLAN.

I've made this a few times this week as a yummy dessert/snack.

Apple Nachos

Cut apples, Melted PB drizzled over with Sugar Free Choc Chips.

This is so satisfying. It keeps me from feeling deprived.

Well, that's all I have for ya this week. Week 4 is going really well. I'm excited to be finishing Phase 1 and moving on to Phase 2 of the program.

And a Big shout out to my hubs for having the wisdom to get rid of the scale!!!! 

It truly has made a huge difference. :)

LIVE FIT TRAINER- Week 1

Week 1 COMPLETE. It's been a really great week. I have much to share. Are ya ready?? :)

Well, it started off a bit rough. I spent a bit of time watching the videos by Jamie Eason on the bodybuilding.com website. Obviously there is irony in this next pic.

M&M's as I watch video's about changing my habits. HA..well, we all have to start somewhere. At least it was a mini bag...?? yes??  YES! :)

Anywhoo, One thing I've learned with my years of weight loss efforts is that Planning is key to success ESPECIALLY at first. It just so happens that Jamie Eason agrees. She recommends taking one day to meal prep for the week. So that's what I did.

I started by making her Carrot Cake Protein Muffins (click link for Recipe)

These are super Delish! Only 93 calories, FULL of protein and a great snack that includes a serving of Vegetables because they are made with pureed carrots. I know, I know..when I read that on the recipe I thought..."EWWW nasty". BUT they are actually really tasty. I take these with me on the go in a baggie. They are the perfect portable snack.

Then I decided to make up lunches for myself for easy grab and eat. I know myself, and if I wait to make lunch when I'm hungry and in a hurry to eat I end up making a grilled cheese sandwich or a pb&j. This way, I have meals with protein, healthy starch AND veggies easily accessible in the frig. Lunch has seriously never been so easy.

To make meal prep easier, I just made extra items while making dinner. It worked our great, then I packaged up the extras.

I had some roast left over so I portioned that out as well. This way I had a little variety.

Dinner usually consists of some type of chicken..we like chicken at our house. My favorite this week was Parmesan baked chicken, spaghetti squash with cauliflower garlic cheesy bread. *YUM*

The workouts this week were WAY different than I'm used to.

WEIGHTS! Lots of WEIGHTS!

Let me be clear that I'm not a weight lifter. I'm a cardio girl. I get on the elliptical and go, I LOVE doing step classes and zumba. I can do cardio ALL day long no problem. Weights have been a different story this week.

But surprisingly, as hard as it was..I enjoyed it. I felt really accomplished after doing three reps with a heavier weight than I thought I could lift.

My body has mildly ached in area's I didn't even know had muscle. But it's been good.

I even had to go buy some snazzy weight lifting gloves to avoid more blisters. The first full day with weight machines and my hands were not feelin so hot. 

I feel pretty hard core with my lifting gloves...hopefully when this is all done I'll have the body to match. THAT would be AW-SOME sauce.

After my 4 workout days I am down 1.3lbs.

Unfortunately, Saturday and Sunday have not been great days of staying on track with my diet. I intended to, and I tried. But quite a few things came up that got me a bit off course. BUT that's ok. I'm starting fresh tomorrow(Monday) morning. Another week. Well, sort of. I'm heading to Mexico for a missions trip on Thursday. But I plan to stay on track til we leave.

So, over all. Loved Week 1. Stayed motivated all week and I'm feeling stronger.

1 down, 11 more to go. :)

Ok- This is Happening

Well, It's February 2014 and I found a journal I started from January 2013. Guess what???? I basically weigh the same amount I did A WHOLE YEAR AGO!!!!!!! *sniff sniff, tear tear*
And my goals for 2014 (for weight loss anyways) look strikingly similar to that of last years.

Here's the deal. I pretty much spent all last year trying to lose more weight. Getting rid of baby number 2's initial abode has proven to be WAAAAAAY harder than I thought it would be. Anyone who knows me knows I make an asserted effort CONSISTENTLY to lose weight. I go to the gym and do several classes per week. I eat pretty healthy almost 80% of the time..I have tried Afterbaby weight loss, Trim Healthy Mama, clean eating, calorie counting and weight watchers all within the last year and I'm  only down 4 lbs from where I was this time last year.
THAT'S DISCOURAGING YA'LL, really discouraging.
I had great success losing weight with Weight Watchers before, I'm baffled as to why it's just not working this time. When I ask a WW leader why I'm not losing their answer is to just eat less.
Well, IDK if you've ever done WW but I can't eat less than I already am. In fact after much reading about metabolism and fueling your body I'm pretty confident I've lived with my body in constant starvation mode. Sure you lose weight initially when you lower your calorie intake but over the long haul all it does is slow down your metabolism...and a slow metabolism does not a fat burning machine make (thanks yoda, ;)

I feel like it's time to figure out my body and what really makes it healthy. I know eating less is NOT the answer, I know working out more is NOT the answer. To be honest...I'm not sure what the answer is. But I know that I have to figure it out if I'm ever going to get to my goals. Sure, I know I could just be content and happy where I am..it's not like I'm obese or anything. I'm not even that over weight. But I have higher goals than just giving up and being happy where I am when I know it's not my best. There is a reason why my body has stalled and isn't releasing the excess and I'm determined to find out why.


So, for the next three months I'm going to be doing, (drum Roll PLEASE)

Jamie Eason's Live Fit Program 

It's a 12 week program that focuses mostly on strength training and healthy eating. I love to exercise..however weights have never been my focus. Sure, I do them in my cardio combo class, or I add some in after 45 minutes on the elliptical. But a lifter, I AM NOT. However, that is going to change. This program starts off with NO CARDIO AT ALL. AW, LORDY.

I've been doing so much reading about how building lean muscle mass aids in weight loss as well as over all fitness and I'm all about that. PLUS, learning to eat better is always a plus. This program is FREE! YES, FREE and lays out all your workouts and meals for you. It really doesn't get any easier. All, I have to do is find the will power to follow the program. I'm praying for the Lords strength to do that.

C'mon Ya'll it doesn't get any better than FREE!!!!!

I don't know if this is going to solve all my weight loss problems. But I am going to give it a shot and see what kind of progress I can make in 3 months.

I will be blogging about my week each monday just to keep me accountable and motivated to keep going. It might even be motivating to you. ;)

I can't wait to get to week 12 and see progress.

Today was day one and the workout wasn't bad. Today was Chest and Triceps so I spent 45 minutes working out those areas with weights. I used 12lb dumbbells for all the exercises and it was tough. When I told my hubs that I was proud of myself for using 12lb-ers he said..."12lbs?? that's like a can of soup".....I don't know what kind of soup he's been eating, but MY cans of soup do NOT weight 12 lbs each. SHEESH! That's ok..we'll see who's laughing in 12 weeks. ha

 I admit that after I was done I felt kinda weird like I should be hopping on the elliptical for a good sweat session. I'm so used to measuring a good workout by not being able to breath and sweat POURING from ever pore. But I resisted and just did some average pace walking to loosen up my muscles.


Jamie Eason says that she doesn't want us using the fuel we are eating to fuel cardio sessions, rather she wants us using the fuel we eat to rebuild our muscles and create lean muscle mass. I'm gonna trust her, she's the expert.

As far as eating goes, I've done pretty well, except for the mini bag of m&m's I had after lunch (thanks mom and dad for sending a whole box full to the kids for valentines day) ;) ha.

So, there ya have it. I'm going after this thing as best I can. I'll hit ya back up next monday to give you week 1's progress.

FINGERS CROSSED~ Wish me luck. :)

Money Matters

Like I said in my last post, God is really taking me on a journey. He's been convicting my heart and changing my thought process on things that I've not even thought about.....EVER!

Lately, He's been speaking to me about money. Yep, that crazy little green stuff that seems to make the world go round but people never seem to have enough of.

M-O-N-E-Y.

A few days ago, I asked my husband to go over our budget with me. Mostly because we are celebrating our 10 yr anniversary at the end of the year and I want to be able to pay cash for our trip. I wanted a game plan. I need to know what we have to do to save "x" amount of dollars by December.

As we looked at the numbers on our budget..what comes in, what should be going out I was startled by a huge deficit!!  There in the column marked "savings" was a surprisingly large number.
I quickly said..."whoa, wait a minute..we save that much every month??" My husbands response was, "no, IF we stayed on budget we would save that much every month, but we don't usually do that".

WAIT a MINUTE..hold the phone!!!! "How are we spending that much extra money a month?? What are we spending it on?" I asked.  He just kinda shrugged and shook his head!

God immediately pricked my heart in a huge way!!!  Basically after paying our basic bills and paying for groceries, setting aside some money for eating out, and doing fun activities we SHOULD have enough left over to put several hundred dollars in savings each month.  The fact that we have not been doing that is a huge red flag to me. We can't even recall what that extra money is being spent on.

Most likely it's being spent on, more eating out, stopping to get sodas, new things we see and want, something for the kids, using our credit card mindlessly and having to pay it off at the end of the month.

BUT certainly nothing substantial or meaningful in any way...because neither one of us can even pin point what it's being spent on.

Friends, I want my money to matter more than this.

IF we are so blessed to have all our basic needs met and are able to budget in eating out, allowances for my husband and myself AND have some fun money...then there is no reason at all why we should be spending the rest except for the fact that we are mindlessly indulging ourselves in desires and wants that we clearly don't need OR have made one bit of difference in our lives.

Here's the deal, we don't live extravagant lives. Just about everything I buy is on sale, I use coupons, I do DIY projects to save money. Literally half of my closet is from Goodwill..NO LIE!
We don't take our kids to expensive outings often AT ALL. I shop at Once Upon a Child for their clothes.

I literally am NOT a "shop or spend-a-holic"

If I want to redecorate..I first think of how to repurpose, repaint and reuse what we already have before buying anything new. So I am literally blown away at how we go through money the way we do.
I've boiled it down to two things.

Carelessness and Greed. Ouch. I don't typically consider myself careless or greedy. But after mulling it over in my brain til it's basically mush I can come up with no other conclusions.

We are careless with our excess, and we are greedy in thinking that if we have excess it should obviously be spent on US!! (there's that "we deserve" american entitlement issue again)

Who says that because we have extra money that it should be spent on us. Does God not use His children to bless others?? Who says that we should even be budgeting in "eating out" and "fun money" as if luxuries are the most important things in life.  What if instead of delegating what's left over to people in need..we turned it around..and supported the needy FIRST, and then used our left over for a few indulgent luxuries?? How different the American church would look.

I think of all the things we could be doing to bless others, to show Gods love with our excess.
We could buy groceries for a family for a MONTH with our extra.
We could buy someone a car..(a used one mind you, but still with 4 wheels and an engine)
We could pay someones rent
We could fund a family in Ethiopia for a whole year so they could have food and education.
We could build a church in Africa!!!

But instead, it gets spent on another pair of shoes for my daughter who already has ten pairs. Or on another scarf for me, when I have two drawers full.
It gets spent on another run to get carry out, when we JUST ate out yesterday.
It goes to buy new curtains just because I've had the other ones for a few years and am tired of them.
More, useless, meaningless junk that doesn't enrich our lives one tiny bit. In actuality it just causes us to want more useless, meaningless junk.

I mean, seriously....I WANT MY MONEY TO MATTER more than this.

So, we've decided to cut WAY back. I have a set allowance every month that is just for me. I can go to lunch, I can buy a new shirt...whatever. My goal and promise to myself is to stick to my allowance. If it doesn't fit into my budget. I don't get. NO MORE EXCESS.

I have a closet full of stuff. My goal is to wear EVERYTHING..(everything that fits anyways). I'm going to put together outfits from what I already have. I'm going to be thankful with my home. I may want new accessories for my book shelves..but there is a child in India who could use that $30 a whole lot more than my book shelves could.

I want God to open my eyes to the nonsense. I love my kids and I love buying things for them. BUT the reality is they have more than they need. They have so much in fact..that they don't really even enjoy what they have because the amount of stuff is so overwhelming. And, because they are so used to getting stuff the thrill is just "getting" it..not actually playing with it, and I'm not ok with that.
So, unless it's a birthday or Christmas. No more TOYS, no more clothes, no more NOTHING!

The fact that my whole family could literally have beds and dressers of our own in our bedroom alone, is a shocking realization to the amount of excess! When I really allow God to do surgery on my greed and my heart I start to walk around my home in AWE of the blessings I've been given.

I'm not living on the street..or in a dump. I'm not hungry, I'm not cold. I have clothes..and stylish ones at that. My kids have luxuries and toys. WHO THE HECK DO WE THINK WE ARE, to maintain an attitude of constantly needing more!

That new shirt wont bring meaning to my life. The bigger tv wont fulfill my inner most longings. Going on an extravagant vacation wont fill any emptiness within me.  A new couch wont bring me meaningful relationships.

I want my money to matter.
I'm giving God room to use the finances He's giving me to bless others. My tithe, is not enough. I will live on less, so I'm able to bless.

I will sacrifice the boots on sale at marshals and the 20th cute dress or hair bow for my daughter so that someone else might know that Jesus is using people to bless them.

I want my money to MATTER. I will live with less, so it will!