DIY Project This Week!

I was scrolling Pinterest last week and I came across a post (which I can't find now, otherwise I'd link to it!) and I got the idea to make my own headboard for my queen size bed. I had never thought of that before, and it looked like you could make it for only $30-40 (better than $300 for one at the furniture store!) I then went on a mission to look up other tutorials for headboard making and I found quite a few! I found this tutorial on Thrifty & Chic which explains really well how to go about making a headboard and even how to make it cheaply! Then I went even further and looked at this blog, in which the headboard was made with cardboard instead of plywood. I decided I could do the cardboard, and then realised that if I did that, it may not cost me a thing. Sa-weet! So I gathered my materials and got to work.

I would advise doing some more research before getting to work, because I had to spend more time figuring out the measurements and size after I was already set to just start building! I ended up measuring 61" wide by 60" tall (it stands on the floor behind the bed and is not wall mounted, although you could wall mount it and save money by making it shorter). Materials I used were: two large heavy duty cardboard pieces I got for free after a kids camp at church, egg-carton foam I took from my hubby's drum cage in the garage (I asked nicely:) which he was using for sound muffling but I decided he'd be ok without it.. (I think he got it for free from a friend), one of our old sheets (also free, wedding gift but don't fit our bed anymore), duct tape (already had), needle & thread and staples & st
apler (also already had), and buttons which were $10 from the craft store.

Here is how I did it in picture form, but check out one of the above tutorials if you want really good steps for making one yourself!!!

 

 

 

 

And here is the final product!!!

 

 

What's For Dinner?

...this is the usual question I find myself asking. I've just dipped my toe recently into meal planning, but still find myself behind sometimes!

This week I'm sharing a quick, easy dinner recipe that my friend sent me on Pinterest. It's from this site if you want it and 13 other awesome meal ideas, but my friend knew that this would be a winner with my pizza loving hubby! (I only just noticed that on the site it is listed as a good children's meal... guess we're kids at heart!)

I literally took one look at the picture and then got what I had from the cupboard and fridge for toppings. We even made it "healthy" with barley/wholewheat wraps!
I give you, The Pizzadilla!

 

Ingredients:

Whole wheat burrito wraps

Shredded cheese

Red Onion

Green pepper (capsicum)

Pizza sauce (we used Italian herb red sauce)

Olives

Pepperoni

(Any other toppings you desire!)

Red sauce for dipping

 

How to:

Prepare your wrap using only one half of it.

Add sauce, then any toppings you desire!

Fold the wrap over the half and flatten gently

Spray a flat pan with oil and have it over medium high heat

Pop the wrap with toppings inside into the pan and cook until cheese melts and wrap is crispy, flipping once

Cut into slices when cool and dip in red sauce to eat!





 

 

Vwa-lah! This one definitely goes into my recipe book as "Husband Approved". He ate two pizzadillas and one filled me up! It was fun putting on all the toppings together and making our own. Hope you try it and enjoy!

...and they continued to live happily ever after!

I really can't believe that it's been so long since I've updated this blog... oops! Well, I've decided it would be good for me to get back into it so no better time than the present, eh?

This post is truly an 'adventure in love'! It's about how Alex and I just celebrated the third anniversary of our wedding!

I was sure that we wouldn't do much to celebrate because, well, our bank account looks a bit sad! But little did I know, he had a spectacular surprise planned! He actually sold one of his cymbals so that he could fund raise to do something nice for us... cue "Awwww!!!"

I worked a full day on the 10th, so he picked me up from work and we headed off into the sunset! Literally. We drove for two hours and I was still in the dark about what we were doing. We arrived about 6:45pm at Ettalong Beach, and the Mantra resort was our destination. "What!?" I exclaimed over and over. "Whatever!!! How did you do this!?" Alex just smiled cheekily. He had booked us a room for the night in this super nice place ("and came under budget!" he proudly exclaimed). So this was the surprise! Except there was more. We checked into the hotel, and then he drove us to our dinner destination; La Fiamma, a delicious woodfire pizza place in town. He had done all of this research beforehand so he would know where to take me for meals! We enjoyed our room for the night, popping popcorn in the microwave and enjoying a bubble bath in the Jacuzzi tub!

The next morning we enjoyed a sleep in and then rushed off on a walk down the beach. Ettalong doesn't have any good swimming beaches, but it was still beautiful. We ended up leaving the hotel late for whatever Alex had planned so we walked a bit briskly. I was thinking, "All this town has is little boats and a measly beach, what could there possibly be to be late for!?" Nevertheless, I trusted him to lead me to the next surprise. Which included stopping at a cute local coffee shop (Coast 175) for coffees! Next stop was the end of a dock. Hmm. What did that mean? He explained that he had wanted to stay at Palm Beach because he remembered that I wanted to go there some time but that there wasn't any nice accommodation over there. So he got our place in Ettalong, which has a ferry service that takes you across the bay to Palm. Genius! So in a few minutes we would board the ferry and spend the day at Palm. Which ended up being amazing and fun, including eating lunch at the famous Boathouse (can you say giant prawn feast!?)

We dipped into the water a bit and enjoyed some throwing of our American football in the sand. We took some time in the sun and peaceful breeze to reflect on how much we've grown in the past three years and talk about where we see ourselves in three more years (kids, eh?). It was a bit hard to admit that I didn't really trust him to handle things when we first were married, and to hear him say that I was much harsher and more stubborn back then. But it was god to see that we've both grown out of those habits and grown more loving and encouraging of each other. In the late afternoon we took the ferry back and packed up the car to head home from our amazing beach getaway!

Alex truly blessed me and blew me away with his planning of this surprise getaway. He put so much effort into it and it was such a success. I realised that I have a bit of an issue with not knowing what is going to happen, as waiting for the surprises had me a little anxious, but it is something I want to work on because surprises should be fun! We had a blast and it was so nice to get away from people (we live with 5 others) and have some space and quiet to ourselves! It was also so fun to explore a new place in Australia. Here's to three years and many more to come! I truly have the most amazing husband!! Here's some fun pictures from our getaway!

The 7 Day GM Diet

As some of you know I've recently tried this seven day cleanse called the GM Diet (yes, GM does stand for General Motors). It's a quick diet that lets you eat all you want each day, but you can only eat what's allowed for that day. Like day 1 for example is all fruit, all the fruit you want but only fruit. I won't be explaining everything about the diet here, so if you want to read up more about it and how it works, you can visit gmdietworks.com.

I had done this about two months ago and had amazing results. It was really hard for me the first three days because I have a bad habit of just snacking constantly...and my belly knows it! It was hard for me to go an afternoon without crunching on some carb-y snacks like pretzles or popcorn. But since I kept to it so well, I had amazing results.

Keep in mind that I was working two jobs as well as working out along with tis diet. Here is my day-to-day diet journal.

Day 1: Fruits
I ate mostly melons, berries, and apples
I found that crunching on Ice helped my craving for munching on things
I set aside the berries as a sweet treat when I needed it
I really realized that most of the time in my day I am thinking about food and am focused on what I will eat next. It was weird to not have that to focus on so I had much more free thinking time
I drank 12 glasses of water (very important for the diet to get enough water intake)
Went to bed tired and cranky!

Day 2: Veggies
Woke up feeling amazingly rested and happy
Ate the potato for brekky reluctantly (ew)
Just ate raw veggies all day until later when I ate cooked corn and veggie soup
Air popped some popcorn to ease the craving (its a veggie right!?)
Drank 10 glasses of water
Didn't do any working out yet
Went to bed early tired and with a headache

Day 3: Fruit and Veg
Not as hungry this day
Less craving carbs and sweets
Fruit salad all morning, veggies for snacks
Got creative and made mashed cauliflower for dinner (yUM!)
Ate raspberries for dessert (my fav!)

Day 4: Bananas!
Down 4 kilos already!
Made a banana shake with milk, so gross, bad idea (I don't like bananas in this form)
Had to have a popcorn snack (air popped, barely any calories)
Had some of the soup as well which is allowed
Ran for 12 minutes straight and felt so alive!
Bananas for snack, not even hungry for dinner

Day 5: Tomatos and Beef
Feeling really great, energy and alive!
Ate tomato for brekky (gross, I hate tomatos)
Ate beef and seasoned diced tomatos for lunch
Not craving much, less hungry than previous days
Beef and tomatos again for dinner but not even very hungry

Day 6: Beef and vegatables
Already so skinny! Tight tummy and 5 kilos lost
Carrot for brekky
Beef and corn for lunch, hot dog for dinner (had to, I was babysitting and forgot my food)
Veggies for snacks
Feeling amazing, so much energy

Day 7: Veg and Fruit (+rice)
Apple for brekky
Veggies salad for lunch
Not even hungry for snacks or sweets

Conclusion: 13 lbs lost
I ended up with so much energy, less craving, less hungry, greater portion control (who knew I needed to only eat so little to actually be full and I didn't have to stuff my face all the time?!) I was able to run and exercise with all the energy I had. I feel so awesome!

I was able to continue eating well after this diet was over. The main thing about this diet, since it is a crash diet that loses a lot of weight quickly is that you have to want to keep the weight off by using the diet to kickstart a change of eating habits. If you just go back to the way you were eating before you will definitely gain everything back. I continued with the principles I had learned from the diet and was able to keep all of the weight off and continue to feel great and healthy. (That is of course until I went home to the States and ate my heart out on American food. When we got back I did the diet again with similar results!)

I recommend this for people who will actually commit to making the sacrifices all week and who want to jump start a healthier lifestyle with awesome results right off the bat! And what you've all been waiting for, here is my before and after collage! Tell me how you go if you try this!

Recipe of the Week: Stuffed Zucchini!

What's that in the oven smelling so good? Oh, you know. Just some stuffed zucchini I whipped up. What's that you ask? Well I'll tell you!

I was going through Pinterest (I know, the P-word. I start so may sentences with "I was on Pinterest, and...") as I do every once and a while to actually write down the recipes I've pinned into my recipe notebook on my fancy little tablet. I LOVE to organize things, and my recipes are definitely important. As I was looking at this recipe online, my hubby was sitting next to me and happened to glance over. I usually try to cook new things every week so he is used to seeing "weird" recipes. (He's into simple meals; pizza or canned soup is what he'd eat without me!) But when he looked over and saw the picture for this meal, he said, "I'd actually eat that!" Which surprised me and made me super pumped to make it this week.

Here it is! It was SO delicious, I'm definitely making it again.

Ingredients:

3 large zucchini
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 cup chorizo sausage, chopped
pinch of cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup feta cheese, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped

Instructions:

"Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
In a skillet, add the ground beef and cook until it's no longer pink. Add the cumin, salt and pepper to it and stir well. Add the chorizo sausage and spaghetti sauce and cook for another 5 minutes, over medium heat.
Wash and cut the zucchini lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh.
Fill each zucchini half with some of the meat mixture. Top with shredded cheddar cheese, feta and tomatoes.
Bake for 15 minutes. "
I found it hard to figure out how to scoop out the zucchini but finally got the hang of it. Also, I chopped up the innards that I'd scooped out and heated it with the rest of the filling because I felt like it was a waste not to, and it made it more veg-tastic!

Hope you try it and enjoy!


Credit: Recipe from http://www.jocooks.com/main-courses/pork-main-courses/stuffed-zucchini/

Remembering Home

If you don't know, Alex and I have recently returned to Australia from a 6-week holiday back home to America! We spent the time catching up with friends, visiting family, eating (A LOT), and relaxing. God truly blessed our trip; flying was smooth sailing the whole way through customs and everything, we were blessed financially beyond belief, and built friendships and greater family relationships.

We weren't sure how the cold would feel to us tropical climate acclimated folk, but it wasn't too bad. I was so excited to have a REAL Christmas (chilly, snow, tree hunting, family, cocoa, etc) and it didn't disappoint.

Australia Day at the Jelly Bean Pool!

This has got to be one of the most fun adventures we've been on since living in Australia. And the weekend was perfect: Australia Day on Sunday and Monday off as public holiday! So we did what anyone would do, we had a family breakfast in our house and then drove 45 minutes towards the mountains to swim in a natural pool/river. Check it out!

 

 

  We are lovin' life and adventuring down under! Love, A&J

Are You All In?

Faith. God. Life. Are you all in?

This past year, 2013, has been a huge journey of faith for me beginning with a huge revelation I received when faced with quite a large issue: I spilled Pepsi all over Alex's MacBook. Now, if you ask my dad, this is no surprise. I spill. EVERYTHING. If it's in a cup or can, you can definitely expect to see it dribbled down my shirt and face or all over the table. Thankfully my husband thinks its cute or it would be really irritating. It has become a funny thing like, "Oh, Jessica spilled...ha ha ha that's just her...". But this was different. Because I actually killed something REALLY expensive this time in my clumsiness with liquids. There was no "ha ha silly Jessica..." this time. We now have a house rule that no computers will be left on the coffee table because of what had happened.

I was devastated, and I was so embarrassed. Alex was sweet about it, but I knew this was a huge deal with big consequences. All of his school notes were on that computer, and he needed it for the rest of the year as well. So we did what we could to dry it out, but it was obvious that it wasn't going to turn back on any time soon.

At this time in my devotional/prayer/Bible time I had been stuck on the verse in the New International version that, "Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1) I also like the version that says, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen." (NLT) That word in the first part of the verse was sticking out to me like I'd never read it before. Confidence. CONFIDENCE! Confidence. I had been pondering faith and confidence for about a week before the great spill happened. In that time God was telling me that this season is a time for battle-warrior confidence in my faith. Strong, no backing down confidence. I just needed something to try it out on. I had no idea that this MacBook story would be my chance.

Up until the Pepsi incident, I had struggled to really believe 100% that God would do something I was praying for. I was learning to pray in faith and strongly believe for Him to do mighty things (because HELLO He's a BIG GOD who is ALL POWERFUL!) but still always had in the back of my mind the, "but what if..." that we ALL think. I think most of us as Christians have one foot in faith and one foot in the "but what if..." of the world. We don't think about being fully CONFIDENT in our God. Mostly because He works things out differently than we think He will or should a lot of the time. But I think as well it has a lot to do with how much faith (confidence) we have in him.

I decided the day the MacBook died that this time I would actually fully 100% commit to believing that God will restore the computer without letting myself think about the "but what if He doesn't?" I took a stand in CONFIDENCE that my God would come through for us. Alex and I prayed over the computer and agreed that it was just a computer and that it isn't the end of the world, but also that our God is a restorer and a good Father who loves His kids and we would really like it back please!

We took the Mac to the Apple store to see what could be done to fix it before we'd have to possibly buy a new one. (Who has the money for that, right??) God knew we couldn't afford that. We told the people at the Apple store the truth, because we knew that trying to lie and get away with liquid damage wasn't right. We also knew that by telling them what happened the warranty wouldn't cover any of the damage. We told the truth in FAITH, and God totally honours honesty. Just saying. The guy helping us had a sparkle in his eye and said, "well, we will open it up and take a look, but if we can't find any physical signs of liquid damage we can replace the motherboard for free since its under warranty." What? We just told you it DEFINITELY has liquid damage. It died when it tasted the sweet, sweet, sticky Pepsi. But he was insistent that they would just see what it looked like in there. Well we left it in the capable hands of the Apple people and went home praying.

A friend and I were recently discussing faith and prayer and believing for supernatural things. She asked me, "what if you are believing for something fully in faith and it just doesn't happen?" I know that she has had people at work asking her about Christians who die of cancer and people who believe for things that never happen in their lifetime. And my answer is always the same; Your faith has to have a big enough revelation of the foundational, unchanging character of God that you can trust that whatever happens He is sovereign and good. He knows every single prayer and every single situation. There are no "but what ifs" if you truly KNOW who God is. I had chronic shoulder nerve pain for MANY years and was prayed for many times before my supernatural healing came. All I did was have faith that God IS healer even if I don't FEEL it yet.

All-in faith says I'm believing that God WILL do something with this situation, no but what ifs. It means that you shoosh the voice in your head that comes out when you are praying to tell you it might not happen. You just choose to believe it will. I know, it's hard. You will feel like you look like a fool or afraid of the unknown answer. But I PROMISE you, you will never lose anything by believing for something. There is no "I'm not going to get my hopes up so I won't be disappointed" in FAITH. Meaning either your faith will be encouraged by seeing your prayer come to pass or you will continue to get the honour of proving that your faith and confidence in God are bigger than the circumstances you see, and that you know He is soverign and good despite what things may look like. Seriously, your faith will grow SO MUCH either way!

We got the call from the Apple store two days later. They didn't see any signs of water damage on the internal electronics of the computer so they decided to just replace the motherboard (a $850 replacement) for FREE under the warranty that was on this Mac. WHAT??? Okay, if you say so! We were so excited and praising God for this miracle. I'd never heard of this happening before, especially when we TOLD them that it had water damage. We got our computer back!

I tell you this long story to encourage your faith. God is good. We didn't need our computer. We could've lived without it, and life would still be great. But you can bet that anytime there is something someone needs prayer for or anything in our lives that needs an answer that I am 100% up for speaking out my faith and confidence in God over the situation! I don't think about that what-ifs. I only praise God for being GOOD and LOVING us so greatly. And knowing every single person and situation and how his plan fits together more than I can even try to or else my head would explode. Because He's God, and He's good.

I'm not a theologian nor do I claim to know a lot about God or the Bible or how he works. All I know is my experience of Him when I get out of my comfortable faith and step into scary, 100% relying on God faith. It's so worth it. And I can tell you that before the computer being fixed I really didn't see a lot of cool things happen because of my faith. No miracles, not really big prayers answered in crazy miraculous ways. And I can tell you it's because the amount and quality of the miracles and blessings you see in your life are directly correlated to the faith you have in believing for them. Now I know that isn't always true and that's a theological thing you can study about more (like I said, I'm no theologian). My husband would say that obedience is also a huge part of that statement, but that's another blog for another time.

 If you love God, you trust Him, and you believe for Him to work, I promise you He will. He wants to do some crazy amazing things in your life, and you need to do your part and have CONFIDECE to see them happen. It opens doors for Him to be able to move in crazy ways in your life!

So I ask you, are you ready to be all-in for God? Are you still letting the what-ifs keep you at the safe, comfortable faith level? Try being all-in. It will change your faith forever and you will get to see God work in ways you've never seen.

Love, Jess