May 11, 2017

Wholehearted Motherhood


We were running late. It should have known by now that something is about to go wrong. Something is about to go completely off the schedule. The shoes were on the wrong feet, the diaper bag was missing diapers and I could not, for the life of me, find my phone. I was telling my son to go do this and that, and for crying out loud, change his shoes. My daughter was taking everything out of the coat closet in hopes of finding her coat.
I was snapping at the kids and completely disregarding the fact that my son was trying to ask me something and daughter was happy to find her favorite little jacket. I was not paying attention. I was doing the thing I was meant to do, the role God created me for yet my heart wasn't fully in it. My mind was running ahead of me, my lists were getting a hold of me. I was desperately trying to fit into my own time line that I have created for myself. I was trying to do it all for the sake of doing it. Just to prove that I can.
I wasn't present. I wasn't at peace.

In the back of my mind, I was giving up important things (i.e. full time job, blogging and career) for these children. I had to do it for the time being. Yet I was waiting for the time when they are grown enough to put their shoes on themselves. Then I can go on to do those 'important' things and achieve new heights in personal accomplishments.
I didn't think I was achieving anything important that very moment.
Of course, I knew my kids are important but not to the extent of making motherhood my life's mission.

In the modern society, we teach girls to do everything except how to make a home, take care of a family and children. Somewhere along the decades of 20th century we have rationalized that family isn't worth it. Having a family, children and home to take care of isn't enough. And with thousands of years of history behind us, all of a sudden we thought we knew better. 
We are women.
We can. We can do it all.
Of course we can, but at what cost? At the cost of a failing society desperately trying to redefine family and miserably failing at it all along.
Hear me out, I'm not promoting a full abandon of yourself as a human being. I'm not even talking about an outside of home job. That's secondary and totally up to what your family needs are at the moment. 

I'm talking about motherhood being done with the whole heart. A motherhood where we are intentional about our time, we set boundaries of how much time we spend outside of home and how we prioritize. Raising our children with a whole heart of love and patience, where time is of essence and yet we are in no rush. Ceasing the moment yet, letting it all fall into place on it's own. Finding a tricky balance to life where we know our place, happy to be where we are yet strive to be better. 
Wholehearted motherhood is fulfilling because it has an eternal focus. When we as mothers realize we are not just doing laundry, making dinners and picking up the living room day after day, but shaping the future of our children we become less focused on how and more on why

Mothering with the whole heart means knowing who you are, knowing your children's place and how God designed it all to work. It does not mean we forget about everything in the world and just focus on our children making sure they become the most successful people by the world's standards. Absolutely not! It means, we strive to reach our identity in Christ before we find it in our children. When we grow and find fulfillment in the Lord, we are ready to give our best to our home. We are no longer questioning our place as women and strive to be everything we were never meant to be. 

Having a personal relationships with Christ does answer a whole lot of questions in life and gets rid of a lot of insecurities. When our hearts are filled with God's loved and humbled by His grace, we are more likely to sacrifice and serve without constant need for attention. When we make priorities for our home and time with our children, we our sowing seeds that will grow now and reap for all eternity. 
Day by day, learning to be the women of God with uplifting, nurturing, loving and caring attitude. Women that inspire, while showing by example of servitude and grace. Mothering with our whole hearts and giving our best is what God created us to be. 

April 26, 2017

Toddler Activity {Making Rain}









Hello there! Having two children at home all the time, gets them a little bored. This passed winter was so long and cold that we were looking for ideas on how to stay busy and not to loose our minds. My son Jonathan is 4 years old and loves all hands on activities. He loves cooking with me, mixing things and see what comes out. On a particularly rainy and cold day, I was looking for something to keep him occupied and found this cute idea on Pinterest, Honestly, I can't even find the link of the original blog post. But whoever you are, I give you credit for being so creative and finding a way to use common household things for such a fun experiment, We learning about rain and how it works because I'm sure God does have fun when it rains. So, I hope you enjoy making this fun experiment with your little ones over and over again, because we sure do. 

Things You Need
- Shaving Cream
- Large Glass Vase/Jar
- Colored Water
- Ramekins
- Syringe

How To
Pour water into a clear glass jar and leave room on top for shaving cream, about 3 inches. Mix colors of your choice with water and make sure it's really concentrated. It will become much  more pale when mixed with shaving cream and more water. Fill the rest of the vase/jar with shaving cream and set it up on a table. Fill the syringe with color of your choice and sprinkle all over the top of the shaving cream. Do not put it all in one spot, you will end up with cloudy mess instead of pretty drops. Keep going alternating colors and watch the colored water fall to the bottom of the vase/jar. After a while Jonathan got bored of the 'right' way of doing it and made cloudy with spraying syringe directly into one spot. After a while water was dark and cloudy and we started all over again. Enjoy! 


Thanks for stopping by!

March 29, 2017

Simple Easter Table Decor
















Hello there! It's spring time and I'm so excited! We have had a mild winter but last snow storm left us wishing for a little bit more sunshine. It's officially spring on the calendar it does not feel so outside. Even though, I have been bringing small pieces of spring inside my house. I definitely changed my front door wreath and started the Easter table setup. Not a lot of people (me included) have hundreds of dollars for table decor, especially since it's a very short season. I gathered what I had around the house and this is what I came up with. I did buy the flowers ($20) from Michael's and the M&M's  with eggs ($2.28 each) from Walmart. Thinking outside the box and using what you have on hand will yield most unique results. If you look closer you will notice that my drinking glasses are all different but that's even more fun. I used clothespins to hold name cards and simple plastic plates inside the real ones which can be used for salad (or dessert). There are no rules and as long as you like the finished result, that's all that matters. 
Hope you draw inspiration and get some ideas on how to set up your Easter table.


Materials Needed
Plates
Silverware
Ramekins
Paper plates (color of your choice)
Plastic eggs
Raffia
Flowers
Runner
Styrofoam Bunnies
Paper Grass
M&M's

December 26, 2016

Pistachio Cranberry Cookies {updated RECIPE}


Hi there! Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and enjoyed the best time of the year. I'm not really back blogging but after hosting another Cookie Exchange Party this recipe has been requested many times. So here is my recipe because I tweaked the original just a little bit. 
Warning: highly addicting and fast disappearing goodies below.



Ingredients
2 c. flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ c. sugar
1 tsp light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 sticks of butter (softened)
pinch of salt
1 box (4 serving size) pistachio instant pudding mix
½ cup dry roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
*optional* green food coloring


Mix together all the dry ingredients and set aside. In mixing bowl with whisk attachment, whip together softened butter and sugar for about 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy, and add eggs.

***It is best to have all ingredients at room temperature so make sure your eggs aren't from the fridge. Let them sit out for up to 2 hrs on the kitchen counter or place in glass with hot tap water for 10 min.
Add the dry ingredients and mix for about 1 minute until you can't see the flour in the dough.


Chop up the pistachios, because I could not find chopped up pistachio nuts. And do yourself a favor and buy the shelled nuts.


Then do the same thing with cranberries. It all depends how chunky or tiny you want them in your cookies
Add pistachios and cranberries to the cookie dough and gently mix just until incorporated for about 30 seconds.


Drop by a teaspoon onto a parchment paper about 2-3in apart. Again it depends how large you like your cookies.


Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, just until they are set. Transfer them onto a wire rack and let coll down. Make sure not to over bake them. Cookies may look like they are soft in the middle but trust me, they are done. Do not keep them in the oven longer then 10 minutes.






Ingredients
680 g (2 cups) flour
3 g (½ tsp) baking powder
170g (½ cups) granulated  sugar
15g (1 tsp) light brown sugar
2 eggs
225g (2 sticks) butter (softened)
pinch of salt

1 box (4 serving size) pistachio instant pudding mix
½ cup dry roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
*optional* green food coloring

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325F.
1. Mix together all the dry ingredients and set aside. In mixing bowl with whisk attachment, whip together softened butter and sugar for about 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy
2. Add eggs to butter and mix well for another minute or so.
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix for about 1 minute until you can't see the flour in the dough.
4. Chop up the pistachios and cranberries into small pieces
5. Add pistachios and cranberries to the cookie dough and gently mix until incorporated for about 30 seconds.
6. Drop by a teaspoon onto a parchment paper about 2-3in apart. You can also use cookie scoop - they will be more uniform and round.
7. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, just until they are set. Transfer them into a wire rack and let coll down. Make sure not to over bake them. Cookies may look like they are soft in the middle but trust me, they are done. Do not keep them in the oven longer then 10 minutes.

***It is best to have all ingredients at room temperature so make sure your eggs and butter aren't straight from the fridge when you starting to whip them. Let them sit out for up to 2 hrs on the kitchen counter. If you we pressed on time here are couple of tips. 
ONE: Cut butter into small bite size pieces and put it into microwave on 20% power for 1 minute. Stir it and if it's not soft enough place it back into microwave for 30 seconds. 
TWO: Place eggs into a glass with hot tap water for 10 minutes.

Thanks for vising and enjoy!

July 1, 2016

Why I Quit Fashion Blogging









Hello  everyone! If you have been a follower of my blog for a while, you may have noticed that I stopped blogging at the beginning of this year.
Why you ask?
Here is the bottom line: it's not worth it!
Let me explain.

When I was starting out, I desperately wanted to be the lucky one of the few who 'made it' in the blogging world. I wanted to have the million dollar house, the fancy shoes and expensive handbags. Yes, I did try to make this a business and to tell you the truth it was going pretty well. My last month of blogging I made some money and got some cool sponsorships. And then? Then I quit.

I quit because it was consuming my life.
Blogging is not just a job you do and then close your computer and go to bed. It's a 24/7 type of thing where you have to be present on all social media. If there's social media outlet your name better be there. If there is an event for all the bloggers, you better be there. If there is a new trend, you better be wearing it the minute it comes out and not buy it on sale two seasons later. If there is a hashtag, you better know about it and use it on all social media. It is simply exhausting to keep up the appearances and chase after something that's ever-changing and so insignificant.

Let's face it, clothes matter so very little in a person's life.

No one will remember what I wore this day, or that (except maybe my wedding) but people do remember what you did for them and how much time you invested in them.

Being a Christian and a fashion blogger is simply impossible. I tried to reason in my mind that I will inspire Christian girls to dress modestly and to look classy. And although that may be true, if the heart of a person is not right, no amount of modest dressing will save them. Their life is much more precious in Jesus's eyes to care about how modest or immodest they look. Saving a life is what matters.

Can you imagine if Jesus came to this Earth to change how we look and what we do? How much would that help us? We would be very proper and well dressed people still going to hell.
I'm not saying that those things are not important but what's more important is relationship with Jesus.

Relationship with Jesus is everything.

Blogging was consuming my life and slowly pushing Jesus out. I couldn't talk about what touched my heart on Sunday or witness to someone, while trying to sell you everything possible. Look here is a cute dress, and those nice sandals I have, don't you want  to have what I have? Go buy it now. Never mind that you are in debt or have to pay bills, or maybe can't even afford food. I will make my life look so attractive and so pretty that you can't resist to buy what I have, which will benefit me. And you? I don't care about that.
That's the attitude of fashion bloggers world.

My primary goal in life is to have a relationship with the Lord that reaches others for Christ and fashion world does not allow that. On the contrary, it does everything to distract and destroy that.
I was living, eating and breathing blogging which wasn't doing anything for people in the light of eternity. It wasn't inspiring anyone to have a passion for Christ and was making the trivial things of life (like clothes) the most important.
Don't get me wrong, I still like to dress pretty and modest but it is not my goal in life.
I love my Jesus and want to live my life so it shows just how much He means to me.
Hope you can join me in living the life of stepping out on faith and having a burning passion for Him, because Jesus really is worth it all.

P.S. Also those faces above! They are worth all my time, effort and money spent. They grow up so fast and I don't want to miss them growing up because I was chasing after the wrong thing.
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