Sweaters to Coffee: 2014 Must Haves!

Okay so who is ready for fall? I  know this girl is! I love the cooler weather that brings scarves, boots, leggings, pumpkin spiced lattes, and FOOTBALL!! There is so much to look forward too! I get giddy just thinking about it.

I always look at the new fashion trends on Pinterest and this year - oh boy- it looks fantastic! Any time you add a big sweater with some leggings and a pair of booties, you have a killer outfit.

Here are my must haves for this coming Fall 2014...

My first must have is a big sweater.

Now those look amazing! How could you not want to curl up in one of those? Being comfortable and fashionable can go together in the right ways. I love me a good chunky sweater. Try www.hm.com/us/ for some inexpensive options.

Next must have for this coming fall is the scarf. These things aren't just for warmth anymore - they have definitely made their way into completing an outfit.

Great accessory for the fall! You can literally find scarves at any store. My favorite spot right now is www.oldnavy.com. They have some killer scarves for less than $20.

Ok this next must have is definitely at the top of my list - booties!! And outfit can look good but when you add the perfect pair of shoes, it takes the outfit to amazing!

Oh and a cuffed jean to boot! Score and score! I usually check out www.dsw.com for some great shoe deals. Also www.oldnavy.com carries some cute booties for less than $40. Cant beat that!

Ok my final must have for this fall is....

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

 

Oh yea baby!!! A psl is a great accessory to any outfit :)

 

 

Be strong and courageous my beautiful sisters in Christ.

 

Ill leave you with this today...

 

"A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart."

Luke 6:45

 

Be back soon...

 

(All my pictures came from www.pinterest.com)



Got Faith?

Do you have that one scripture that just speaks to you every time you come across it? I certainly do. That scripture for me is Matthew 9:20-21. It doesn't matter how many times I read it, it blows me away.

-Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."-

Seriously?!?!? Can we all say to ourselves that we have faith like that? The woman didn't even need to touch Jesus herself - she had enough faith that she knew that she could be healed just by touching the hem of his garment.

Could you imagine if us Christians walked around this Earth with a faith like that? Lets read on through verse 22...

-Jesus turned and saw her, "Take heart daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment-

Her faith healed her!

Dear Father,
We come to you now first thanking you for this precious day that you have made. We thank you for the breath in our lungs and the beat in our hearts. We rejoice because today is your day! Lord we pray for a faith that can move mountains. A faith that only needs to touch the hem of your garment and knowing that is enough. To have that amazing faith in the good times as well as the bad. Even when things do not look the best for us, we still have the faith that you can and will bring us through whatever valley we are going through.

We love you so much Father and thank you for your living Word. Thank you for speaking to us through your word!

We start this day with abundant faith and the view is divine!
We pray this in your precious name...AMEN!

Lets do this sisters and brothers in Christ - we got this!

Matthew 17:20
He said, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

If you are facing a problem, a problem that seems as big as a mountain, turn your eyes from the mountain (circumstance) and fix your eyes above to God for more faith!

Be back soon...

Walk It Out

Have you ever felt like your life was in a storm - the waves crashing down on every side and there seems to be no way out? We all go through these times where we feel like we are drowning, where we feel like all hope is lost. Trust me friend, I have been there and I know what that feels like.

But I know an amazing Creator that can be our calm in the storm.

Breath this scripture in:
Romans 5:3-5 (NLT) “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. Endurance then develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.”

God uses these trials to break us and reshape us into the man or woman of God He can use for His purpose. 

2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT) "We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."

God didn't make us these expensive high dollar vases that would break and  then that's the end of our story. No, He made us like jars of clay, this makes us easily breakable to the point where He can form us anyway He wants. 

So friends trust in The Lord for He is our source of strength and peace. When we try and fight the battle on our own, we will lose. Who wouldn't want the all powerful, all mighty King on our side?? 

Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for this day, this amazing beautiful day. We know that we can't fight this battle alone and we know we need you walking by our side helping us along. Although I know some of us may be in the valley, we know that this time is a time for reshaping and we thank you for that. Let us all reach a new level in our faith in you God. Let us continually grow in you, God - never growing stagnant in our walk. We thank you for fighting and winning the battle! 
In your precious name we pray - Amen!

Walk it out friends! Know that God has already won! 

Be back soon...

This New Life

Wow - has it really been a year since my last post. It is amazing how much time can go by before we even realize it. Well here I am...again...ready to take on the blogging world. I really cant explain why my absence was so long but I will tell you this past year hasn't been the easiest.

God has definitely taken me to the next level but it took a trip to the valley for that to happen, and I can tell you that that valley was ugly - but I can faithfully say that I am on my way out and man the view is amazing!

For some reason I felt the time had come for me to start blogging again. Don't be surprise when you see some changes happening, I just feel the time has come to step out of the 'blogging world' box and do what I feel led to do. You definitely will not see a post everyday unless I feel the need but I will be around a few times a week.

There have been some major changes throughout this past year as well - I was hired on as the Children's Pastor at our church! God is good! And shortly after that my husband became the Campus Pastor. God is definitely grooming us, not sure what for at the moment, but I know it is going to be amazing! He has taken us both out of our comfortable zones and put us in places where the growth would be abundant. And I can tell you we both have grown so much in our relationship with God, our marriage and parenthood - it just blows my mind.

So I hope you still want to follow along on This New Life - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

Be back soon...

A Little Chicken In Your Enchilada!

So I have finally got back on the Pinterest band wagon. I took a few months off because it seriously was addicting, so now I am pacing myself when it comes to pinning. But what brought me back to the pinning world was an enchilada recipe. Before we went clean I had an amazing recipe but it had a bunch of processed crap in it and it definitely was no where near healthy - so I knew I needed to find another recipe, and fast!

Well it didn't take me long at all and that is what I love the most about Pinterest - everything is right there at my fingertips! I found this recipe on http://www.fannetasticfood.com so all the credit goes to them.

Here are the ingredients:

• 3 C cooked chicken, hand torn

• ½ C canned chopped green chilies

• ¾ C nonfat plain yogurt

• Juice from 1 fresh lime

• ½ tsp. cracked pepper

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 2 C enchilada sauce (see recipe below)

• 10 large white or yellow corn tortillas (or wheat tortillas — not gluten-free)

• Extra virgin olive oil or cooking spray, as needed

• ¾ C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

• 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.

1) In a large bowl, mix together the cooked chicken, chopped green chilies, yogurt, lime juice, cracked pepper, and cumin. Set aside.

2) Make your enchilada sauce, recipe and directions below

Enchalada Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

• 1 small onion, peeled, diced finely

• 1 tsp. chili powder

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 28-oz. can crushed fire roasted tomatoes

• 1 tsp. sugar

• 1 splash of balsamic vinegar

• 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped


Enchilada Sauce Instructions: Heat the olive oil for one minute in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onion, garlic, and spices; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and cilantro; stir and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 20 minutes.

3) Lightly oil/cooking spray a 13 x 9″ baking dish. Spread a thin layer of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dish.

4) Set the first tortillas into the baking dish. Spoon one tenth of the chicken mixture into the center of the tortilla and roll it up, placing the seam side down. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.

5) Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with shredded cheese and cilantro.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbling, and enchiladas are hot.

7) Serve warm with salsa, hot sauce, or guacamole, if desired.

I totally forgot to take a picture of my own but here is the picture from the recipe's original website. Mine looked pretty close, maybe not as delicious but they were pretty darn good!

Hope you all enjoy!

Rearranging My Priorities...

First I want to thank everyone for the support I receive on a daily basis about my blog. It truly makes my heart smile to know that people actually read this thing! I absolutely love writing this blog and I what I love even more is that I can look back at any point and see what I was working on or what our family was doing six months or even a year ago. Its like my blog-scrapbook!

With all that being said - things have been super busy around the Hart house lately. I guess summer vacation will do that. We definitely have been on the go, trying to keep the kids happy during these summer months. But I must honestly say that I am happy I took a break from writing a post everyday. When I first started this blog I felt the need to write something every single day - except weekends. Why I thought I needed to spend that much time doing something that was just hobby, I have no idea! But I did and I kept it up for quite sometime and then I burnt myself out. It was extremely hard to find something to write about every. single. day! It was quite exhausting and as you can tell, my posts began to dwindle.

My mornings were consumed with writing my post and it came to the point where I was more worried about what I was going to write about than what my kids were eating for breakfast. Finally I realized that this blog wasn't my job and it was no where near as important as my family. When telling my kids "wait one more minute" seemed the normal in my morning routine, I knew that the time had come for me to take a step back and rearrange my priorities.

So now I am letting you all know that I am still here and alive but just taking a more relaxed approach to this blogging thing. I cant promise that I will post every day but I will post when I have the time and when that time isn't taken away from my family.

Thanks again to my loyal readers - even if I am only talking to the four of you! I love my blog and I do love sharing my loves with all of you. So again I apologize for my brief absence but I hope all of you understand where I am coming from!

See you all soon - love to you all!

My Ten Minute Project!

So I decided to dress up my lonely kitchen window! It has needed some love for quite some time now and since I had extra fabric hanging around, I thought - why not put it to use! 

Now this would be my very first valance type window cover and I think I did a pretty good job. It may not be perfect but it works for me. 

If you haven't been in my kitchen, it's a bunch of brightness so I knew I wanted a bold pattern for the window. So I decided to use a yellow and white chevron pattern. 

I measured the window and was beyond happy that I had enough fabric!! 

And can I tell you how easy it was! Super easy! 

I then used sticky Velcro to put up. Not the most professional way but its up there!!! And I love it!! 

It literally took me about ten minutes from beginning to end. 

What spur of the moment project have you tackled lately?