Wisdom for Wednesdays

“Eve’s thanklessness for all God does give and her resentfulness of the one fruit He doesn’t give, this is the catalyst of the Fall.”

-Ann Voskamp

(Did you catch my post on Eve last week? I was delighted to read this quote a few days later!)

Tuesday Talk #4: Get Ready for a Cookie Swap!

You guys!! I'm so excited for this! If you know me, you know what a cookie monster I am!

It's hard to believe next week is NOVEMBER. Which means HOLIDAY SEASON!

And that means time for BAKING!

Stop by next week for a special Tuesday Talk event: a cookie swap! You'll find great recipes from the hosts and participants, and we'd love for you to share your own recipes! I am NOT a food blogger (have you seen the lack of quality in my photography??) so don't feel any pressure at all that your post needs to look amazing. Just bring your favorite recipe, type it out, and share it with us in the link up!

Can't wait to see you next week! Bring a glass of milk!

Sacred Marriage: A Book Review

This book has been on my reading list for years. So many of the wives I look up to list it as one of their favorite books on marriage. I love reading books that help me become the best version of myself, and in this new role of wife there's plenty of room for improvement!

The subtitle of this book is so poignant: "What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?" Our culture shouts the opposite: test-drive the opposite sex, use others before marriage, it's all about your happiness and your gratification. It's no wonder we have so many divorces in our society when we're encouraged to simply focus on our own happiness all the time!

Author Gary Thomas radically challenges us to the opposite in this book. He asserts that God intended marriage to sanctify us, to make us holy. And sanctification involves pruning, molding, burning away our selfishness. The beautiful thing about this realization is that it no longer becomes about you. The pressure is off for a perfect marriage of perpetual happiness (which doesn't exist anyway!). Instead, your marriage becomes an offering to God, a union open to His hand and His transforming power.

Thomas gives historic, spiritual, and practical insight within these chapters. I would highly recommend this book to any couple discerning marriage, engaged, or already married. As an added bonus, my husband and I are reading the devotional that accompanies this book: Devotions for a Sacred Marriage. It's been neat to have him experience the same principles in devotional form that I'm reading in the longer book.

Christmas is coming up in two months! Either book would make a cozy read by the fire...and might stir those coals in your marriage, too. 

Have you read Sacred Marriage? What's your favorite book on relationships?

[Thank you to BookLook Bloggers for a complimentary copy in exchange for a review! These are my honest and original thoughts.]

Wisdom for Wednesdays

"All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life. In a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece."

-(Pope) St. John Paul II

Tuesday Talk #3: This Daughter of Eve

It's that time again already! Anyone else feel like the weeks fly by?

What's new with you? What are you excited about this week? Chime in and link up! See details below on our Tuesday Talk party and be sure to link back to at least one of the hostesses!

It all starts in the kitchen with our mugs and muffins.

So this past Saturday a friend and I hosted our second meeting of our women's Bible study. I am so in awe of how God is using it already. We wanted to start out with an intimate group of 8-10 and we're already up to 16 women. Women crave community, don't we? It's so beautiful to see this group of women come together-- single, married, mothers-- and find common ground in our faith walks. Many of them did not know each other at the beginning, but we're already sharing our hearts, our joys and struggles, as we learn about the women of the Old Testament (and munch on muffins and sip warm drinks).

This past month we studied Eve, the first woman, wife, mother. I went in to this chapter thinking of it as an introduction of sorts, a chapter I wanted to "get through" so I could get to the more exciting characters like Esther or the more relevant ones like Sarah with her fertility struggles.

Little did I know, I would relate to Eve a lot more than I realized!

Like mother, like daughter.

As I reflected on the insights of the chapter, the Scripture passages, and the discussion questions, my heart kept opening up more and more to what God wanted to show me.

H. brought pumpkin muffins! Yay!

Eve and I are more alike than I'd ever have guessed.

Do you know why Eve committed that first sin, why she listened to the devil and ate that apple?

Because she didn't trust God.

Her trust in God was weak. She listened to the devil, believed his lies, and then acted. She doubted God's goodness, His providence. She began to see God as One who was withholding good things from her. She allowed Satan to change her view of God instead of speaking truth to herself, of reminding herself of God's promises.

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so, too.

My trust in God is weak. So often the devil whispers lies to me and causes me to focus on what God is withholding. I doubt His goodness. I doubt His providence. I believe the devil instead of my Heavenly Father. And then I act. I choose selfishness. I avoid prayer. My view of God is distorted.

If only Eve had walked away from the devil's deception. If only she had spoken truth to herself. If only she had sought conversation and time with God, to remember who He is and to hear His reassuring voice drown out the lies.

If only I did that when I'm tempted to doubt, discouragement, sin.

This chapter was so beautiful, so surprisingly insightful. I am Eve's daughter and I see so much of her in me. At the end of the chapter, we were encouraged to make a 'strategy' for building virtue and strength for the moments of temptation. My strategy consisted of five points:

We're outgrowing my living room! :)

1. Remind myself of who I am in Christ.
2. Remember God's goodness and who He is. (My favorite site for the attributes of God!)
3. Develop more discipline in prayer and in my daily life.
4. Seek encouragement through mentors and through visible reminders. (Bible verses in house, car.)
5. Receive grace and strength through the sacraments of the Church. (Give me Jesus in the Eucharist!)





What would your strategy be? Who do you relate to most in the Bible?

The hosts of Tuesday Talk

Beth - Our Pretty Little Girls ~ Michelle - Grammie Time
Keri - Living In This Season  ~ Christina - Waltzing In Beauty
Lauren - Simply Free ~  Becky - BYBMG
Jess and Katie - Sweet Little Ones ~ Whitney - Polka Dotty Place
Laura - Life Is Beautiful ~ Elizabeth - All Kinds Of Things
Sarah - Abiding In Grace ~ Stephanie - Wife Mommy Me
Emily - Morning Motivated Mom

You can join us on Pinterest, too!

Follow Sweet Little Ones's board Tuesday Talk Features on Pinterest.

Join the party, friends, by linking up with your favorite post from the week! Here's the scoop:

An InLinkz Link-up

Homemade Laundry Softener

Guys, I've been on the hunt for a good DIY laundry softener ever since we got married. I've always used white vinegar in my rinse cycle and it has done a pretty good job. But my hubby is used to dryer sheets and nothing natural can compete with those chemical-loaded sheets of nastiness. He lovingly allows me to use whatever I want (or is that a ploy to get me to do the laundry??) so I'm determined to find alternatives to mainstream laundry detergents and softeners.

I'm currently alternating between his old detergent and my homemade recipe for the washing cycle. I still put white vinegar in for the rinse but now I'm also adding this nifty homemade scented softener. I also use homemade wool dryer balls-- love those!

I've only used it twice so I'm not completely sold on it yet. I do think the clothing seems to be softer and not wrinkle as easily. The scent could definitely be stronger though. It smells great in the bottle but by the time I pull the damp laundry out and put it into the dryer, I can't smell much of the scent anymore.

I'll continue my search for the perfect blend of homemade laundry products. Do you have any recommendations for healthy options?

Here's what I came up with so far, based on several different Pinterest combinations.

You'll need Epsom salt, your choice of essential oils, a bowl, and a spoon!

I used grapefruit and vanilla because I had these on hand (and I wanted a warm yet fruity scent).

Pour in about 2 cups of Epsom salt and 20 drops of essential oil (at least 10 drops per cup of salt).
Stir until oil is well blended into salt. 

That's it!! Seriously! Just use about 1/4 cup (or two big scoops) per load.

And there you are. I wish I could give it more rave reviews but I think a few more loads of laundry are needed before I give my final verdict. (But from the looks of our baskets, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a few hundred more loads.)

Happy homemaking!

"Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offenses. Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin." -Psalm 51:1,2

The Silent Sorrow: Miscarriage Awareness Month

Precious gifts from Sufficient Grace Ministries: A memory book and bear.

It's Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. 

Not that I'm celebrating it or anything. But it's there. And I can't ignore it. I keep seeing posts on social media about miscarriage awareness. And honestly? There's a part of me that wishes more than anything I weren't so acutely aware of it. 

Yet here I am. My heart, my body, my arms aching to hold my little one this side of heaven. To mark the weeks with milestones of growth, instead of milestones of grief.

Yet here I am. Simply a newlywed to most people. But a mother in the deepest core of my being. 

These are the pains no one talks about. Miscarriage is such a silent wound. I think it's partially because of our culture's lack of care for the unborn. To some people, we simply lost a "pregnancy," a "potential child." But we know he was our son. 

During the acute time of grieving after our miscarriage (because the grief never completely ends, it only changes with time; I will always love our child and always yearn to hold him close), God still provided. Yes, there were people who just didn't get it, who said thoughtless things or who said nothing at all. But there were also the people who reached out in word and deed, who prayed like warriors. There were the articles that said what my silent heart wanted to say, there were the women who understood exactly what I was going through. Those words and those women were gifts from God. He was reaching out to me through them.

And so in the coming weeks, I want to compile some of the things that helped me rise and walk again. I want to share them with other women who are suffering from this cross and remind them that they are not alone. 

If you are reading this and uncomfortable with my rawness, my realness, I want to share one more truth. It's an important one: There is joy in this cross. I never thought I'd say that, but there is joy and there is peace. There is joy because God gave us a child. There is joy because we believe he is now in heaven with the Lord, a small but mighty prayer warrior before God as he prays for his parents and awaits our incredible meeting in heaven someday. Our child was loved so deeply his whole time on earth, so wanted, so cared for, so carried. We have never experienced deeper love than that which we had for him-- and that by which he was created. These are good things. These are blessings. The temporary separation is painful, but the eternal joy is sweet. 

So know that we appreciate when you reach out. It means so much when you acknowledge our loss but also our parenthood. When you share about your own losses. When you pray with us and for us. 

We count it all joy, because God has given to us abundantly. (James 1:2, 5)

From a precious friend, who lost her son in the second trimester this summer.
What a beautiful reminder of God's love for our babies.
This is the goal for all of us. Our little ones just made it there before us.