Fore!

I've always enjoyed tagging along when Andrew plays golf as long as I have a good book in hand.  Riding around in the cart can be relaxing.  For the past several years Andrew has been trying to convince me to let him buy me clubs and teach me to play.

We went to the driving range on Mother's Day and I actually listened to the tips Andrew was giving me.  Lo and behold the ball actually left the ground.  It was kind of fun.  

He ordered me clubs and they arrived last Thursday.

We went shopping on his lunch break and bought me all the necessities - aka cute clothes. :)  Once he was off work we were all set for the driving range.  I'd say it went pretty well for my first lesson.

Of course it doesn't hurt that my coach is good looking.

The next day we went to Hurricane Golf Club where are members.  It was around 7:30 when we went and since they had a tournament that day, they were out of range balls.  Translation - I was about to play on an actual golf course for the first time.  I tried to tell the husband I wasn't ready, but he said I'd be fine so off we went.  I did not throw my first golf club after only two holes.  It can be a very frustrating game.  I had fun though and managed to hit a couple of good shots.

I love how happy it makes the husband that I'm playing.  Just a warning, if you talk to him, he will bring up the fact that he has a wife who is playing golf now. :)  I love it!  It's nice to have something we can enjoy together.

Monday night I had my third practice, my first bad practice.  It was one of those days where I was being extremely sensitive and everything was making me cry.  Not to mention it is 100 degrees outside.  I was getting very upset and there were a few tears.  I was thankful the husband was my coach.  I'm sure anyone else would have thought I was a crazy person and quit then and there.

The husband has been very sweet and patient with me.  He is an excellent coach.  The LPGA is playing in a town a couple of hours away this weekend.  He wants to take me.  Ya'll my husband has never watched ladies golf!  Ever!  But he wants us to go  this weekend.  :)  Maybe I'll learn a thing or two.

Tuesday Tunes

You might remember this post about the Girls Night Out concert I went to a few months ago.  One of the ladies there was Laura Story.  She is an awesome worship leader.

My daily Bible reading has been in the Psalms lately.  I've been devouring David's words to the Lord.  Something I've noticed is that David always begins by praising the Lord.  No matter the situation.  He may follow it with a plea for his life, but David always praises the Lord first.

It's caused me to really think about my life and if I choose to praise God first.  Sadly, that is not always the case for me.  It's something I'm praying about and working on.  No matter what is going on in my life, I want to praise God first.  He deserves it for no other reason than He is Lord.

He is my Savior.  And oh what a Savior he is.  

This song is free to for you to download on iTunes at Klove this week.  Go grab it and enjoy. :-)

They call me Aunt E

A little over eight years ago when I married the husband I became an aunt for the first time. I have eight beautiful nieces, five handsome nephews, and another nephew who will arrive in a few weeks. I have to tell you I absolutely love being an aunt. It's one of my favorite things. My older nieces and nephews simply call me Elaina. They were old enough when Andrew and I married that they very rarely throw in the aunt. I'm fine with that. It doesn't bother me at all, but at the same time it is sweet music to my ears to hear the little ones say Aunt E.   I'm not going lie! They say Aunt E and I'll pretty much give them whatever they want because I love hearing them say Aunt E so much.

Thursday night I had the blessing of keeping Jackson & Millie while Cary & Sara had a little alone time to celebrate their ten year wedding anniversary. I love how Andrew's siblings act like it is such a big deal when I keep their kiddos. Jill constantly tells me I'll understand when I have my own kids. I feel like they are the one doing me a favor: allowing me precious time with my nieces and nephews. Because we don't have our own children, our house isn't exactly kid-friendly. We have no toys. We have a cup of plastic animals and that is it!! I decided tonight we would treat J & M to some fun time at Chick-Fil-A.  

After we ate our chicken and had fun playing we headed back to our house for a popsicle and outside fun.

I loved the time we were able to spend with Jackson & Millie as well as Cary & Sara.  Jackson has such a wild imagination.  That kid cracks me up.  Millie has the sweetest little voice.  I LOVE it!  I wish they lived closer and we could see them more often.  

My Own Test

Two months ago today Liberty & Liam disappeared from our backyard when a picket fell off our fence.  It was not a good day.  Many tears were shed.  At the time, Andrew was on a vacation visiting with high school friends along the east coast.  Shortly after he came home, Liberty found her way home.  Two days later I left to take a group of students to Washington D.C. for four days.     Liam is still out there somewhere.  School came to an end which means a crazy time for me.

I allowed Satan to convince me to use the craziness that was our life for a couple of months as an excuse to walk away from God.  I wasn't angry at God and I didn't purposefully walk away from Him.  But I did put him at the bottom of my priority list.  I wasn't communicating with him.  I wasn't spending time in the Word.  I wasn't spending much time in prayer other than to ask for things I wanted.  I wasn't going to church.  

Let me just tell you, once you know the Lord and live life with Him, to live life without Him is miserable.  It was just in the last couple of weeks that I realized how little time I was spending on my relationship with the Lord.  I'm thankful he gave me a desire to work on that relationship.

I'm back in church and I don't know that I've enjoyed it this much since I first accepted Christ as my Savior.  I am falling in love with Him all over again and loving every minute of it.  I just want to share His love and what He has done for me with everyone I know.

I signed up for a Bible study at our church this summer.  At first I was torn between two different studies: one at church - the other with my sister-in-law and a group of ladies she knows.  I prayed about it and really felt God was pointing me in the direction of the one at church.  It is The Inheritance by Beth Moore.  If you have ever listened to Beth Moore speak, you know how good she is.  For the past two Tuesday evenings, I've been in tears because I've felt such a deep thankfulness for my Lord and His love for me.

Beth has shared so many things that I want to share.  Last night we spent the majority of our time in Genesis 22 where God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

Beth pointed out that God called Abraham by his name.  When I'm being tested, He calls me by name.  He says, "Elaina, here is your test."  Unfortunately he doesn't say it that clear.  But I don't share my test with anyone else.

The Bible tells us that our husbands are the head of our household and as wives we are to submit to our husbands.  

Sometimes this seems so simple to me.  I'm blessed with a husband who knows the Lord and wants what is best for me and our family.  

That in its own way creates a challenge for me all to often.

I find that I don't always take responsibility for my own relationship with God.  I depend on Andrew to take care of that for me.  But it's not his job.  That is not at all what God meant by saying men were to lead their families.

My relationship with God is mine.  No one else's.  My test are my own.  Andrew's test are his own.  That's not to say we will never be tested in the same area, but just because my husband is being tested doesn't mean I am being tested in that same area at that exact time.

I'm stilling learning the difference between submitting to my husband and allowing him to lead while at the same time taking responsibility for my relationship with God and listening to what He calls me to do.

Andrew and I work in two separate places.  Though we are one in marriage, we have our own separate little worlds where we called to be lights.  Andrew can't witness for me to my coworkers or my students or the parents that I'm in contact with.  God called me to do that.  I'm responsible for me.

I want to leave you with a verse that I came across in my quiet time a few days ago.  I'm not sure why but it has really stuck with me.

Our lives are in his hands, and he keeps our feet from stumbling.   

Psalm 66:9

 

Our Little Kitchen

Our kitchen remains a mystery to me.  As I stated in my previous post cooking is a rarity in our home.  Our kitchen is probably the least used room in our house so how in the world does it get so dirty?  Seriously.  It amazes me.

It could possibly be because it is my least favorite room to clean.  I'll do just about anything to get out of cleaning the stove, sink, and dishes.  Again, how do those things get dirty when we don't cook?

Thankfully our kitchen is small.  Perfect for people like us.

It comes complete with a crazy brown dog. :)

I HATE our white cabinets.  Andrew and I enjoy going and looking at new houses and getting ideas for our dream home.  When I walk and see white cabinets in the kitchen it completely turns me off to the whole house.

Some things in my kitchen that I do like...

 My owl cookie jar.  He is was a birthday gift from my Mommom.  I'm pretty sure he was the first owl to come into our home. 

 My dry erase board, scentsy warmer, and my favorite picture of my brother and me.  I love my little dry erase board.  I enjoy switching it up every so often.  And if you haven't bought into the Scentsy idea, you need to .  They are marvelous!!!

 My monthly canvas.  My very crafty sister-in-law Sara gave us these for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I LOVE them!!!  

Honeymoon water.  Andrew and I filled this bottle from the springs in Hot Springs while on our honeymoon.

While we're talking about my kitchen, I might as well update on how the cooking is coming.  Andrew ended up having to stay in OKC longer than expected.  He is on his way home right now.  I cooked for myself one night and that was it.  He will be home a couple of days before leaving again so hopefully I'll be able to try out some of my recipes.

Going Domestic Part 1

 A Master Chef.

Queen of the Kitchen.

The Next Martha Steward.

Paula Dean.

These are names that my sweet husband would NEVER use to describe me. HA! 

When it comes to cooking, this pretty much sums up my feelings.

Sometimes I have high hopes of these grand meals being hot and on the table when the husband arrives home from work.

Because we are not a family who eats at home, we rarely have the ingredients on hand to prepare a meal.  So I get these great ideas for a meal and head to the store to pick up some groceries after work.  By the time I'm out of the store and home I no longer feel like cooking.

But now it's summer.  I'm home all day.  I don't have to try to cook a meal after teaching all day.

So I've been scouring pinterest the last few days looking for some easy and healthy recipe.  I pinned a few and made my grocery list.  

The meals have been planned.  The groceries have been bought.

I'm going to learn to cook this summer.  I hope the husband's stomach can handle it. 

I'm praying that I learn to at least tolerate it as well.  I do want to cook so we don't eat out every day.

Maybe if I blog about it and allow all of you to hold me accountable I'll actually maintain a cooking lifestyle.

Wish me luck.  And send those recipes my way.

Come On In!

Welcome to the Weaver House!  I'm linking up with Kelly today to share our living room with you.

Decorating our home as been a long journey for me.  When we first got married I was 20 years old and had not a clue as to what my personal style was.  At that point Andrew definitely had better decorating skills than I did.  Sometimes I think he still does. :)

It has a taken almost eight and a half years, but we are starting to learn OUR style.  I'm not very good at seeing the big picture.  So many times Andrew will say he likes something and it will look good here or there and I just don't see it.  Of course once we get it home I have that Aha! moment.  There are times when I wish he didn't care, but for most part I'm very thankful to have a husband who wants and input in our home and what it looks like.

We both like color!  When it comes to furniture it is very hard to find something we agree on.  The foot in height difference has something to do with that.  If he sits comfortable on a piece of furniture, chances are my feet don't touch the ground and my arms are level with my head when placed on the arm rest. HA!

Enough talk. Welcome to our living room!

 The view from our dining room.  The doors in the background are our garage door and front door.

 Looking in from the hallway. 

 I LOVE my red TV stand!!  It was something we had been arguing over for quite some time.  I wanted something big... a real piece of furniture.  Andrew wanted something small.  We stumbled across this and both fell in love with it.  We got a discount because a lady returned it because of teeny tiny scratch ON THE BACK!  It was meant to be. :)

 Aww.  My chair!!  There have been many books read in this comfy chair. :)  Notice the owl pillow.  Of course it is my chair.

 Our love seat with my favorite pillow.  Andrew surprised me with it after I fell in love with it.  It was an expensive pillow so he originally told me to keep looking.  I couldn't find anything I liked near as much so he went and bought it for me.

A close up of our paintings that our dear friend Amanda painted for me.  They are huge and bright!  Adds so much color. 

So there you have it!  Small and comfy.  That's how we like it.

Summer Summer!!

One Week!  One week of my Summer Vacay has already gone by.  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  And it's been fun.

We started the summer of with a little Riverfest.  This is an annual event that happens in Little Rock.  Outdoor concerts and fun down on the Arkansas River.  I normally send Andrew by himself as I hate Riverfest.  I suffer from crowdaphobia and there are definitely crowds there.  I prefer concerts where everyone has their assigned seat. 

But Boyz II Men was playing this year and I wanted to see them so I gave it another try.  Oh MY!  How fun!  Andrew and I stepped back in time a decade.  They were a hoot with all their dancing. 

We went back Saturday night to see Lynyrd Skynyrd.  This was not so much fun. HA!  Not my type of crowd if you know what I mean.  I've never seen so many rebel flag du-rags in all my life!!  I will say that was probably the one and only time you'll have that many Hog fans cheering for Alabama.

Somehow we managed to make time for some pool action Saturday before Riverfest.  Andrew swam and I laid out with a book.  Aww!  The sweet life!

Monday we drove up to Andrew's Uncle Kevin's lake house for a day on the water.  it was a fun and relaxing day with family, friends, and good food.

It's not very often I make something I'm willing to share, but I found these ideas on pinterest.  They were easy and festive so I had to give them a try.  I even ate one of the strawberries!! 

Today I had the pleasure of keeping Miss Sydney while Jill and Amelia had a fun day at the zoo. 

Sweet girl was happy to be hanging out with her Aunt E.  Melt my heart!!

Even with all the fun, I've managed to get quite a bit accomplished for school.  I'm at a stand still with that now until I go to a few workshops over the next couple of weeks and get some answers.

Happy Summer!!