good changes & a summertime update | our family

photo by our sweet friend Lyndsay Adams

It's been a little while since my last post! What a cool, busy month. It feels like our family has been away from home most of the summer. I thought it would be fun to share a family update tonight to fill you in on what's going on with us. Luke started a new job at the start of July. He's now the Missions and Outreach Pastor at our home church back in Gettysburg. This job is such an answer to prayer and a perfect fit for his interests, gifts, and personality. It's the coolest thing, as his wife, to see him enjoying it like he is. I love listening to all those dreams and ideas build up in his head and then watch them turn into something so cool and helpful to people.

Life will be changing quite a bit because of Luke's new job, so we are viewing all the changes as a fun adventure and enjoying every minute. For the next year, we'll be living at school during the week and then we'll commute every weekend to spend two days in Gettysburg. The drive is just about two hours each way. Slightly longer if you count our chick-fil-a breaks. One of the biggest blessings is that both sides of our family live out in that direction, that means we're going to get a lot of time with them this year.

I'm thankful for the past couple years we've had at school. We were a part of a great church and Luke had a job he really loved. At our church, we learned a ton and built great friendships. God developed my heart in ways I didn't know I needed. At Luke's job, we met such cool people and I got to see my husband work faithfully without complaining. He was a full time student with scholarships to maintain, a husband, dad, and an employee and he just did it with so much love in his heart. I love that guy - he is the coolest.

Another family update... I'll be finishing up my associates degree this year! I am anxious and excited about getting back in the classroom. Luke and I will graduate together in May. I also plan to keep working my part time job, babysitting for an amazing family, and to get more involved with kids ministry in Gettysburg. Lots of good stuff. Lots to adjust to and schedules to figure out, but overall we're just overwhelmed by God's goodness. I love this season for our family. It feels like tons of answered prayers coming together and we're just... overwhelmed. Haha. That's the only word for it.

And of course, I can't finish this post without sharing about our girl. :) Bekah is now 13 months old and she is still super awesome. She's a walker now! She takes just about 3-5 steps at a time before she plops down on her bum. Bekah loves her extended family and goes crazy when her little cousins are around. She is very "busy". She's constantly figuring things out, turning little objects over in her tiny little hands and inspecting them. She especially loves her daddy's car keys, the fuzz on her favorite blanket (when bored in the car) and the tv remote. Bek and I had a different kind of week together last week while Luke was chaperoning at a camp. I just loved my time with her. I know it sounds sort of funny, but I really appreciate that little girl. I love who she is and I love how she interacts with the world. She's my girl.

I think that's about all that's new with us. So, how are you doing? What's new in your life? Thanks for reading, friends!

My June Goals

It's been a while since I've shared my monthly goals here. I used to enjoy it so much, so I thought "why not start again?" I love goals and lists because they help me see how I'm really spending my time.

Now here's a fair warning: My goal list might look a little intense at first. I have monthly goals (individual tasks to complete by the end of the month), weekly goals (things that need to happen once a week), and daily goals (simple things that I can do every day that make a big impact). The cool thing is, they actually all work together really nicely because they're based around a small list of things that really matter to me.

If this list seems a little too much to you - that's ok! The beauty in goal setting is that we can all do it differently and figure out what works best for us. I'll need to keep this list in a spot that I see daily for it to be helpful. I used my Lara Casey Powersheets and put this goal list together this morning while Bekah napped. I feel really good about it - it feels simple and fun but also challenging.

So, here are my goals for the month of June:

My monthly goals:

Write out a book of the Bible by hand
Try a new recipe from the 100 days of real food blog
Fix a couple functionality issues on strong and sweet (there are a couple links that don't work like they should)
Make a blog post idea list and follow up with those ideas (without second guessing them all ;) )
Make a toy drum for Bekah
Share a drawing on my blog
Help my sister with one of her wedding projects
Finish organizing the hallway so there's room to store the vacuum and stroller
Celebrate Bekah!!! (She turns one on June 9th!)
Have an awesome family vacation next week!!!

My Weekly Goals:

Send Luke out for at least two hours a week to go have fun (that guy works so hard for us!)
Blog 2x each week
Complete 6 days of meeting my 10,000 steps goal and 1 day of rest each week
Go outside for a run 1x a week (most of my exercise is indoors or walking outdoors)
Sit down for 30 minutes and work on bills/family paperwork/updating budget
Catch up with Katy and Ann (my best friends from high school who I don't see much)
Go on a date with Luke

My Daily Goals:

Pray daily about a couple upcoming decisions we have as a family
Do the daily Clean Mama house cleaning task (yay for not having to make my own cleaning schedule! yay for a clean house!)
Pick up Bekah's room at the end of the day
Do 30 squats and 30 ab twists daily in combination with my other exercise

I'd love to hear about your goals and plans for June. I think June is one of the best months of the year. This year will be extra special because it's Bekah's first birthday, my mom's birthday, and my brother-in-law's birthday. The cool thing is, we get to celebrate all of them together on vacation next week!

Hope you're having a great week, my friends.

Love,
Bonnie

A Roadside Find Redone {a dresser before and after}

Back in December, I shared this picture on Instagram. We found this dresser on the side of the road, just a couple minutes from home. It was in pretty good condition, but the finish was worn out so it seemed like a good candidate for a new coat of paint. I had actually been searching craigslist for a few weeks looking for a used dresser to refinish, so seeing this guy on the side of the road was a very nice surprise. 

From what I can remember, I think this is the first piece of furniture I've painted. In my Instagram post, I mentioned that I was planning to paint it white and replace the wooden drawer pulls with pretty glass knobs. I completed most of the dresser-redo back in December. I quickly cleaned it off, primed it (with this product), then applied two coats of Dover White paint. I used a regular paintbrush to prime and a small foam roller to paint the two coats (using the brush for areas that the roller couldn't reach). I didn't add a topcoat, because I didn't expect this to get a ton of wear and tear and because it was a good way to save some time and money. The paint job isn't perfect but I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Our room is pretty small but it's a refreshing little place. As soon as the dresser was put in place it felt so much more peaceful in there - it was becoming a collecting place for things without a real place to go. The extra storage space has been amazing. I like the clean lines and how sweet and bright the white paint makes our cozy gray room feel. There's a crack in the top of the dresser that adds character and makes it feel a little rustic or something. Obviously I've thought a lot about this piece of furniture. :)

 

Just this morning, the project got all wrapped up as I reattached the hardware.  I'm still on the look out for those pretty glass knobs but I'd be very happy to just keep the dresser as is. 

Thanks for reading about this little redo! What projects do you have going on around the house? I'd love to hear about them.

Love,

Bonnie

** By the way, I was a little intimated to paint furniture at first. Virginia, who blogs at LiveLoveDIY, has some really great posts about redoing thrifted furniture. She made it all seem very approachable and her posts are so funny. If you want to read more about this kind of thing, I'd definitely recommend visiting her blog. 

Our Valentine's Day {2015}

 So each year, Luke and I alternate who plans Valentine's day. This was our fourth valentine's day together (fifth if you count the year we had just confessed our 'like' for each other a few days before) and it was my year to plan.

On Saturday (the actual holiday) Luke's sister and our brother in law offered to babysit Bekah for a few hours so we could go out on a date. We knew our actual celebrating would happen the next day after church, since Luke would be working Saturday night, so we just took a couple hours to walk around the mall. We got some crazy good Auntie Anne's, a big lemonade to share, and we held hands a lot. It was very sweet and very us.

Then after church on Sunday, we celebrated! I kept my plans a surprise from Luke and I sooo looked forward to the moment when I would get to tell him to turn into his favorite cheesesteak place on our drive home. He was very, very happy to hear that our order had been placed (two chicken cheesesteaks with onions) and the food was ready for pick up. He pulled up to the door, I ran in and paid, and we drove home with a very delicious smelling car. When we got home, I needed fifteen minutes or so to set up for lunch. I set the table with some special decorations I'd made earlier in the week and put on pretty jazz music. We had the nicest lunch together while Bekah caught up on her naps. I had prepared a bunch of questions and prompts ahead of time, like "A time we laughed a lot..." and "If I could relive one date...". We took turns pulling the questions out of a jar to answer. Some just encouraged him to give me a kiss, so that was awesome, too. It was really good conversation with the best company ever. (That's you, Luke!)

After lunch, Bekah woke up and we had the most restful, perfect Sunday afternoon. We did pretty much nothing but rest on the couch while Bekah played right beside us. She's a cutie little valentine isn't she? We bought Bek a painting from my friend Carrie for Valentine's day! I'm excited to share about it once I go pick it up this week. So... I guess it's a late Valentine's gift. :)

 The last surprise of Valentine's day was having some of our friends over for ice cream sandwiches. Luke worked at an old-fashioned drive in restaurant as a teenager and has told me many times about his favorite dessert that was served there, ice cream between two big chocolate chip cookies. He's not a big sweet tooth kind of guy, so when he mentions a dessert he likes, I'll jump at the opportunity to get it for him (and eat it with him). Luke used his former ice-cream-boy skills to assemble the sandwiches for us - and they were delicious! Just vanilla ice cream and his favorite cookies from Giant. The time with our friends was awesome and we even had leftovers.

Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet valentine. I love you, Luke, and I'm so thankful that I'm your wife. You make the ordinary stuff, and every day together, so special and fun.

Hope you are having a great week, everyone! I'd love to hear about your weekend.

Love,
Bonnie

** hey, just a quick side note: Over the weekend I watched the coolest message by Annie Downs. The message was targeted for singles, but I think anyone could draw some real, meaningful encouragement from it. If you can listen to it during a drive or watch it while you exercise, or just put it up on the TV while taking a break this week - I think you'll really be blessed by it, like I was. She's also really funny. :) CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK  and if you do get a chance to watch, tell me what you think!

Sharing my Health Journey {week five 2.11.15}

Another week is done! This one felt so different than the others. Last week I shared that a big struggle for me was the amount of time it was taking to get my 10,000 steps each day, mostly because of the types of exercise I was doing. I expect it to take time, and putting in the time is really important - but it was getting to the point that other necessary stuff was getting pushed to the back burners. I asked God for wisdom about that situation and ended up with a sort of funny solution.

Running has always scared me. I think it might have something to do with dealing with asthma as a kid - that feeling of not having enough breath was too common and so unpleasant. In my post for week four, I mentioned that I had given running a try again. It was freezing out that day and the cold air burned. During every little portion of running I thought "this is the last one - I don't think I can run anymore after this". But sure enough, when I went back to walking, I'd catch my breath a little and feel a real desire to run again. That was a pretty cool feeling and I felt that some new hope and joy was developing there.

I found an old, free copy of Jesse Owen's (a 1936 olympian runner/broad jumper) autobiography in our school library. I started reading it around the day I tried running again - and then that night I had a dream about running. And it was so fun! I think this has been one of the coolest parts of this health journey so far. I'm getting excited about something that has always scared me and felt off limits before.

It's been very icy the past week or two, so there haven't been a ton of opportunities to run outside. So the funny solution? Running in place (not with Bekah - I just liked that picture). Sometimes for 5, 10, 20+ minutes at a time. I'll watch a video and just run. Haha - I sort of feel like I'm cheating the steps or something... but I guess that's not really possible? I feel stronger and like my endurance is better each day with that. I get sweaty and happy and excited to run outside. Hopefully the ice will melt away for good this week and next week I'll have some outside running reports to give you. :) I'm still mixing in REFIT dance fitness and having a lot of fun - but I was ready for a little variety.

Another thing that really encouraged me this week was when my parents visited on Saturday. My mom (who is always so encouraging) said that she saw such a difference in my energy level that day. It was so sweet to hear because I was feeling that same thing! In past visits, I felt like I just wanted to melt into the rocking chair when they were here. Just because, ya know, with your parents you can kinda put down your guard and be honest about how you feel. But Saturday was so different. I wasn't discouraged. I wasn't feeling low about the tough stuff of being a mom. I was energetic and able to enjoy our visit so much more! I'm so thankful for that. If eating better and living a more active lifestyle can help me be more present during family time - then both those things are so worth holding on to.

A couple things I want to work on this week? 1) Eat less sweet stuff/junky food, more whole foods, keep track of food 2) Get outside and give running a try again and again 3) Start the day in prayer and praise and check my attitude/heart first thing.

Thanks for following along again this week! I'd love to hear about any kind of health or habit changes you've been making, too.

Love,
Bonnie

If you'd like to check out the previous posts in my health journey - here they are!

 

 

Sharing my Health Journey {week one 1.13.15}

A few months back I became interested in getting a FitBit. I did a little research and it seemed like something that would encourage me to become (and stay) more active. Well, some time passed, and a couple weeks ago Luke used Christmas money to buy me a FitBit Flex. He's so nice. :) I've only had it for a handful of days, but I am loving it so far. And even better, I'm seeing a lot of my habits improve!

My plan is to wear the FitBit on my wrist everyday and try my best to reach the goals suggested on the FitBit dashboard. If you're not familiar with what those goals look like, here's a screen shot of the app that tracks my activity, food, and water throughout the day:

The first is Sunday - it's a pretty good reflection of what a day looks like when I don't put much focused effort into being active.

The second is Monday - it was the first day I reached the steps goal. Big difference!

Then the third dashboard is this morning around 8:30am after morning Refit

Monday afternoon I told Luke that I'd like to start sharing my health journey here on Strong and Sweet. After 23 years with this body, I have been through plenty of ups and downs about how I view it. I've hit lows of self hatred and highs of contentment and thankfulness for the body God gave me. One common theme I've noticed is that when I'm caring for my body, I am much more thankful for it - even if there are still things I'd like to see change.

So here's the plan: I'll aim to share a weekly post here about my health journey. I'll highlight some of the highs, the lows, and the other things on my mind about the week. Consider this a conversation, so if you want some encouragement on things you're working through, too, I'm your girl!

1. Monday was the first day that I met the 10,000 step goal. That felt so good and satisfying. I was pretty surprised by how much extra effort I had to put in to reach the goal! My legs were good and wobbly Tuesday morning. 
2. Keeping a big, refillable water bottle around makes a big, big difference in reaching my goal of 64 oz of water a day. Special thanks to my bro-in-law, Jackson, for my 24.7 oz water bottle that makes this easier. (He also got Bekah a matching one... ah!!)
3. I've been using the ReFit Rev youtube videos and I'm enjoying them so much. I made a playlist on YouTube with some of their videos. It's kinda like Zumba. I just pull it up on my computer and do the exercise routines in the living room or in the bedroom if Bekah is still sleeping. I try to do 4-6 songs in the morning and then a bunch more in the evening. It is really, really fun. I am totally not a dancer but I still find myself smiling as I loose my breath and feel the burn. Give it a try! I'll link to one of my favorites and my playlist below.     
4. I was worried about getting enough exercise during these cold winter months, but I found a fun (and kinda weird) solution. I take walks around the halls of our apartment building. I think yesterday I did like 6-7 laps through the halls and even ran into a few friends along the way. :) That mixed with Refit Rev and just generally trying to stay active most of the day has, so far, been getting me to 10,000 steps (and wobbly legs).
5. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling not so excited about starting over at zero steps. There was some discouragement there so I've been trying to be pretty proactive about catching those thoughts and replacing them with encouraging thoughts instead. Sort of like 2 Corinthians 10:5. 

Alrighty, friends. Bekah is napping and I've lunch to eat and dishes to do. If there's any take away from this, I think it's that there is a way to move in the direction of our goals and better health. This is an area where I've struggled for a long, long time, so it feels good to be moving in the right direction, even with simple changes. Thanks for being a part of that by following along!

How's your week going? Any tips on how you stay active on busy days? 

Love,

Bonnie

Oh! And here's one of my favorite ReFit Videos if you'd like to try it out. Click here for my playlist.

It Starts at Home {naming 2015}

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great December. It's been quiet around here, but it was a really good month. The semester ended a few weeks ago, so we've been spending a lot of time with family and friends and lounging around the house. :) We got to see all of our siblings over Christmas (a real treat since we're spread out across a few states) and just this past Monday, we came back to campus. Five days with family was awesome, but being home and settled into our space again is great too.

This year for Christmas, Luke and I are giving each other new offices! The word "offices" sounds so official - like we're accountants or something... creative spaces? Work spaces? Let's go with one of those. Luke's desk will go in a closet nook in our living room and mine will go in Bekah's room. We'll take the guest bed out and replace it with a desk, chair, and some other fun things. All within our set budgets, of course. :) I can't wait to share these projects with you as we get more done! Our goal is to have our new work spaces completed by the time Luke's spring semester starts in mid January.

Hey, do you remember last year when I wrote about naming my year? I called 2014 "Made for This". This time last year, we were living in a new town (for 4 months) and I was about 3 months pregnant. Remembering I was "made for this" when I felt afraid of the upcoming changes and challenges (like delivering a baby for the first time or making new friends) was such an encouragement to me. It reminded me to put my faith in God who made me and equipped me for this time and place. Through Jesus, He made me more than a conqueror, so I can face life's hard stuff filled with hope and already victorious. "Made for this" was a statement of faith. It was a great year. I tried new things, delivered a healthy baby, grew to love our new town, faced some challenging stuff but we made it through. God is good and I am very thankful.

Well now that January has started, I'd love to share my name for 2015 with you. I'm calling 2015 "It starts at home". I think the name might change a little... but that's the best I've got so far. ;) So what does "it starts at home" mean for 2015? Here's a little background for ya...

I really love blogging. The trouble is, it's easy to loose perspective and focus more on my blog life than my real life. Sounds silly, right? As 2015 approached, I started thinking about the name for my year. My very loose method for doing this is to think and pray through some of the themes that have been really prominent in my heart for the past month or so. I started to feel a strong pull towards home - serving and loving my family and all that goes with that. 

"It starts at home" is a little vague, but a really hopeful statement. Home is where the good stuff starts. Caring for my marriage starts at home. Playing with Bekah and building a relationship with her starts at home. Serving my family starts at home. My morning routine, and choosing my attitude for the day starts at home. Often evangelism can start at home - it's a great way to welcome people into our lives and care for them. Making healthy decisions starts at home. A whole lot of fun and laughter can (and should) start at home. So much good stuff starts at home. I think the thing that is really on my heart overall here is that it is worth investing in the stuff at home. Sometimes discontentment can pull me away from home. I don't want to be pulled away - this is my place and I'm going to care for it this year. 

Something else I love about this name is that it ties in so nicely with sharing more home design stuff. So in addition to sharing about the things that start at home, like relationships and fun family stuff, I'll keep sharing projects and home related things here. Home is all about bringing people together so we can invest in what matters. I look forward to sharing more home updates with you throughout the year!

Alright. Now it's your turn! Have you given 2015 a name? I've seen some people use just one word and others use a longer phrase like I chose this year. Whatever you choose, share away! It's going to be a great year. God will carry us through and give us strength, even through the tough stuff.

Love,
Bonnie