"I Want Jesus."

Last night my oldest and I were driving home from church after fishing, rock throwing, and paddle boating out at a farm that belongs to the family of one of our youth kids. Em had a blast with her "big kids" and was very chatty from all of the energy she had conjured up throughout the night. As we were driving I noticed a lightning storm in the distance and pointed it out to her. It became a game of seeing who could see the lightning in the clouds first. As we watched I asked her, "Em, do you know who made that lightning?" She said no, so I asked her, "Who do you think made that lightning?" She immediately spouted out, "Jesus!" I told her yes, Jesus made that lightning. This started a discussion of what God made that was all around her. Among the list of things she came up with were trees, grass, mud, and animals. I always remind her during these creation discussions that she is one of the beautiful things that God made, as well as her brothers, her mommy and daddy and even her sweet dog, Crosby. She reminded me that Jesus loves and takes care of us. We talked about where Jesus was and where he lived and then the sweetest, most genuine words I've ever heard this child speak came out of her mouth: "Mommy, I want Jesus." Those words kind of stopped me in my tracks. If you could have heard the serious sincerity in the tone of her voice, they would have stopped you in your tracks too.

Now, let me be up front and tell you this is not a blog about how amazing my four year old is in her theology or how awesome of a mom I am because she is so spiritually mature at such a young age. If anything, it is the opposite. We are making up for lost time with our sweet girl, she doesn't have any verses memorized, she barely knows any concrete stories from the bible, and our family devotional times are often chaotic and full of disorder with three littles running around. I'm the mom who drops my child off at Awanas with a guilty conscience because she doesn't have her verse ready for her Cubbies teacher and it's my fault. I can even tell you that not 10 seconds after those sweet words came out of her mouth last night in the car, she told me quite matter of factly, "Jesus is in the car with us. I just ate him." So, my four year old is not a theological prodigy by any means.

However, I have been pondering her words all day today and have felt a stirring in my heart. I truly believe that in that moment a four year old little girl was enthralled and amazed by the God of the universe. The moment may not have lasted long and her silliness may have kicked in pretty quick, but the simple humility in her voice gave me the impression that she was amazed by Creator God. All of the things we were discussing that God created were so cool to her and for a split second it was like she took it all in and all she wanted was to see and know Jesus.

We live in a society where parenting is a game. Who can have the smartest kid, who can have the kid that wins the most awards, or whose kids picture on Facebook gets the most likes. We display our daily lives on social media often times to gain accolades, make ourselves look better to the outside world, and even make ourselves feel like we are better than we really are. We compete with each other, even if it is subconsciously. Beyond being known by the world, we want our kids to be involved with every activity under the sun, even if it means driving ourselves crazy, spending too many hours of the week in the car, and compromising family time. Basketball, cheerleading, dance, soccer, so on and so on. We buy and buy, give and give, enroll and enroll. All for the sake of giving our kids anything and everything they could ever possibly dream of or want. It's the society we live in, the generation that has evolved, and the mindset that is spreading through our culture. I'm guilty of it and hopefully you're honest enough to admit that you are too. A lot of these things aren't bad in and of themselves, but when you put them altogether at the level that we have taken them to, you come out with an overworked, tired, messy family that you never intended to be.

"I want Jesus."

As parents, I think it's time that we take a step back and evaluate our desires and the desires of our children. When it boils down to it, there is a hole in our lives that we are trying to fill with all of these "things." The desire of our hearts is to fill that hole and to put something in where we see something is missing. So we throw out a post about how much we worked out, what an amazing meal we cooked, and how awesome of a student our kid is in hopes that someone will tell us how awesome we are and boost our confidence. When you get down to the heart of the matter, that hole isn't in need of likes or shares, encouraging comments or awe of other people. It's desiring love and acceptance, fulfillment and confidence. We desire to be built up and fought for, encouraged and acknowledged, supported and represented. We desire to be known. When you take all of the fluff and excess out of our lives, the true cry of our hearts is a simple phrase like my blonde-headed beauty voiced last night: "I want Jesus." We may not realize that He is who we are desiring, but He is the one stirring our hearts and whispering to us that there is more. He's the one putting on lightning storms that catch our eye and make us think about where they came from. In the same way, He is the one who is stirring in the hearts of our children, making them aware that they need something more. They don't need to be involved in every activity, they don't need the latest styles or the hottest new piece of technology in order to be fulfilled. They don't need parents who compete against each other for parent of the year. Soccer and cheerleading, toys and clothes, likes and shares won't cut it when it comes to filling their days with joy. And it is our calling and our job to lead them to Him so that they can come to know the God who their hearts are longing for.

But how? How do we lead them in a way that they can find the simplicity that is having faith in Jesus in the midst of a world of excess? My heart is convicted about this. I often times feel that I have to have this flawless devotional time planned in order for my kids to see Jesus. Sometimes I fear that I will say the wrong thing or completely mess up in teaching the bible to my children. I see other kids who spit out memory verses or can retell bible stories and I immediately go to Pinterest looking for ideas and activities that I can use to build my child's biblical knowledge. I find myself once again in that place of competing with other parents and trying to put myself back on top. Too often, I miss Jesus even in this: in discipling through parenting. He doesn't call me to be a perfect mom with a perfect plan and a perfect family bible study time. He calls me to talk to my babies about Him and tell them how He has worked in my life. He calls me to act like Him when I am stressed and overwhelmed and don't want to be joyful. He calls me to tell my kids where I see Him and how He blesses me in every day moments. He calls me to come to the place where I can simply say: "I want Jesus."

My sweet babies will one day be bombarded by the craziness that is the world we live in. Their innocence will fade, their desires will be clouded, they will have distractions fighting for their attention and it will be even harder for them than it is for us to simply say, "I want Jesus." My hope is that the more that I can humble myself, push away the desires of this world, and simply want Jesus, my children will in turn come to see that the most important desire that they could ever pursue is to want Jesus and only Jesus.

Where am I going next?

Halloween was one of my favorite days that we've lived over the past 7 months. I, like lots of girls, have dreamed of dressing up my kids one day in adorable costumes, teaching them to trick or treat, and eating their candy after they go to bed (don't lie--you've thought about it too). When I realized that we would have not one, but three babies on Halloween I just knew we had to do a family theme for our costumes. Cheesy, I know. But they're only little once and by next year my submissive three year old may be a very opinionated 4 year old who doesn't want to join in on family themed costumes. So, we went with our sweet girl's favorite movie The Wizard of Oz and had so much fun seeing the excitement on her face and hearing her tiny voice excitedly say "Trick or trivet!!" To all of our neighbors. I know all of the child specialists would tell me to correct her mispronunciation, but I prefer to enjoy her little sayings at the moment. 

Dorothy, the Yellow Brick Road, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tinman.

Dorothy and the Lion loved riding in the wagon around the neighborhood. Sister kept up with the candy for brother :)

We had a wonderful time trick or treating, taking a thousand pictures, visiting the outdoor church party for a whole 20 minutes because of the freezing temperatures, and then coming home to check out all of sister's candy. A little conversation about candy, the Halloween day events, and costumes brought up a question neither Nathan, nor I, anticipated.

I made a comment about sister keeping her Dorothy costume in her dress up bucket so that she could keep it and play dress up with it as often as she wanted. This triggered a memory in her mind about playing dress up at her previous foster home. As she told us about it, we used it as an opportunity to talk about the events of her life over the last seven months like we always do, hoping to instill in her an understanding of her life little by little. But this conversation took an interesting turn when we mentioned how she used to live at the other house,  but now she lives at our house. Her response? "Where am I going next?"

Where am I going next?

She didn't say it in a sad, angry, scared, or frustrated way. She had the biggest smile on her face after talking about costumes and Halloween and said it with sweet curiosity. But it stood out to us and stopped us in our tracks. Thinking about her previous home and the home she has now, it made sense in her mind to wonder which house would be her next home. We immediately explained that she wouldn't be going anywhere else next, that she was here forever, and that she would always be our little girl. She smiled and moved right along without missing a beat. I, however, still haven't moved on from that question. It has lingered in my mind and continued to roll around in my brain ever since.

Let me explain something: sister has only lived in two homes since coming into foster care--the home she lived in when she came into care and ours. She has had unprecedented stability, love, support, and care while in the system. Her first foster family is amazing and took care of her in ways that helped her catch up in all areas of her life that she was lacking. She has been in one of the best foster situations that I've ever heard of and hasn't had to endure traumatic experiences like many have because of her age and the fantastic placement she had when she was taken into care. Knowing that, it is interesting to me that she would ask a question more profound than she even realizes. That she would think she has to go somewhere else next after only moving once (that she remembers) and receiving so much love. She still wonders. It is engrained in her.

Realizing this led me to wonder: if my very happy, very loved, very stable, very young daughter who has only had uplifting experiences since being in foster care wonders where she's going next, how much more does an older child (even a year older) from harsher lifestyles who has bounced around from house to house wonder this same thing? Where am I going next? How much more do these kids live every day only partially accepting where they are as home? How much fear and anxiety do they carry around every moment just waiting to hear what their next move may be or next hurdle is to jump? The possibility (and reality) of how massive this thought process can be for some of these kids completely blows my mind and is unimaginable.

So as this year comes to a close, as you reflect on 2014, prepare for 2015, and set goals for the coming year, I ask that you consider this: what can you do to help a child that asks the question "where am I going next?" I pray that you would consider opening your home to one of them. That you would look into fostering or adopting and not run away like I did for a whole year. If you are unable to open your home because of other circumstances going on in your life then I pray that you would seek out opportunities to be involved. Become certified for respite care (babysitting), volunteer for some of our local organizations who are passionate about serving our kids, donate funds to help support these children, or dedicate yourself to pray for them. Because whether they are in the best situation or the worst, they all wonder: Where am I going next?

Before the Beauty

Tonight I had the joy and privilege of watching my little blonde hair, blue eyed princess jump and spin, twirl and prance, and giggle through an hour of dance class. Her little three year old self could not be more adorable when it comes to this dance class. When I reminded her this morning that it was dance class Monday, she simply responded, "But I already did that yesterday (which is her way of saying last week)." Who knew she'd be perfectly content with just going to one class?? So of course she was pretty surprised and excited to get to go back again. She doesn't know what she's doing all of the time, but she is an amazing type A rule follower, so she sticks with the teacher. Her attempt at a forward roll is the highlight of the gymnastics portion of the class and always leaves us at the edge of our seats wondering if she's going to make it over this time! To see her run and laugh and smile from ear to ear is one of the most beautiful moments of our Monday's.

After we got home it was down to business with bath time, bottles, jammies, bedtime stories, and goodnight kisses for three little babies. Nathan and I have figured out a pretty good system for these nightly routines and if we time it right we can usually squeeze in some one-on-one time with either of our two big kids before they're off to bed. Tonight I got to rock my big little man while he had his bedtime bottle. This is quite a treat for me considering that he has gotten so big so fast and rarely wants to sit still for any amount of time. But tonight he let me rock him and he so sweetly stared at me right in the eyes. His big blue eyes just stared and stared and his chubby little hand waved in the air to catch a piece of my hair that was hanging down. I would have loved to have rocked him all night long.

It was both of these moments combined with seeing pictures and hearing stories of other children like my own that got me to thinking about this thing that you've heard us talk about so much lately: adoption. 

In our home adoption is a beautiful thing. We have looked forward to it with such hope and anticipation. It has brought us two of our beautiful children along with many happy moments that will live on in my memory forever. It has formed our family, it has transformed our family, and it has blessed us more than I could ever describe in words. But have you ever thought about adoption before the beauty? Before the hype, the excitement, the new family, the new names, the celebration? Before the new memories, the growing relationships, and the new normal? Before the beauty there was destruction.

This was a reoccurring thought to me tonight as I cherished the looks, laughs, and precious moments with my babies. In order to get to where we are now, my kids had to experience the destruction of their original family. They don't remember it and never will because of their young age, but it happened nonetheless. Somewhere along the way something went wrong and the life they were born into crumbled and ceased to exist. They were pulled from a family, placed in a new family, and in 29 days will officially be given new names that carry with them a completely new life. For so long I have looked forward to that day with excitement that could not be contained. But tonight I have felt a different emotion: sadness. Sadness for a man and a woman who brought my children into this world but will never be mom and dad to them. They will never see the clumsy forward roll that my little girl stumbles through in gymnastics class. They will never see the look of amazement when she hears the sounds that come from her tap shoes. They will never get to ew and aw over her twirls in her pink frilly ballet skirt. They will never get to stare into the beautiful blue eyes of my baby boy. Or see him crawl across the floor like a big boy. They will never get to feel the heartwarming joy of watching the bond these two have even at a young age. They've lost all of these things. Forever. They'll never get them back. And they will never fully grasp all that they have lost.

Tonight my heart hurts for the destruction that comes before the beauty. For the loss that comes before the gain. Because somewhere out there these people exist. They're missing the beauty. They're missing the moments that I am cherishing. And that is heartbreaking.

Can I ask you to pray for them? Can I beg you to pray for those who have not yet lost custody of their children, but could be close? Would you consider lifting up those who are working to change their lives in order to bring their babies back home? We can be very quick to judge these situations. I always have been. But these are real people, real kids, and real lives at stake. Pray for redemption. Pray for healing. Pray that the destruction will be overcome.

 I am thankful that God makes all things beautiful. He has given me two amazing children through the beauty of adoption. But there are those out there who may not ever have to experience what comes before the beauty if we would simply pray that God almighty would rescue them from themselves. 

The Blue Room

We have a blue room in our house. We actually have two blue rooms in our house now because I convinced my sweet husband to redecorate our bedroom that we never got around to decorating when we moved in two years ago. But we have one blue room in the house that is sitting empty.

In February we received news that there was a baby in Northwest Arkansas who needed a home. We immediately jumped at the opportunity to adopt and began preparing for our lives to change! I went into clean freak mode and spent all of spring break cleaning out every room in our house, throwing out junk, creating a garage sale pile, and joyfully making room for a baby boy to invade our world. In the midst of all this purging of unneeded stuff, I bombarded Pinterest searching for the perfect nursery theme. I pinned and pinned and pinned until I found the perfect wall color--Plumage. I know, I know. It sounds like a very stuffy purple color that your grandma would paint a room. However, it is actually a beautiful, deep teal that I just knew would be perfect for a nursery. I got it approved with my easy going husband and we set off painting!

Now, many people (including you) might say we were crazy for painting a room for a baby that we weren't even positive would come home with us. We still had two months until the baby was born and a lot could happen in two months. But even as we were painting, as I was rolling Plumage onto boring beige walls, I knew that God would be faithful. I even viewed it as a step of faith. My offering to the Lord that I trusted Him and would follow Him even in the small act of painting a room. We felt so accomplished when we were finished and so excited about filling this room with everything baby.

As it turned out, a lot did happen in those two months. The mother went into labor a month early and we spent three days in a mad dash to get anything and everything done that needed to be done to bring this baby home with us. But in the end, he didn't make that drive home down I40 with us. He stayed with his mother and we ventured home to an empty blue room.

I actually didn't even think about the room until much later the night we came home. Our sweet friends Courtney and Thomas came to see us and bring cookies of encouragement. As they were leaving, we stood in the entry way of our house which looks directly into the blue room. It took everything in me to not slam the door and sit down and cry the night away. After our friends left, Nathan gently closed the door, knowing it was what I needed at that moment.

The door to the blue room stayed closed for a few days, but eventually was opened as our lives carried on. For the first few weeks I would close it when people were coming over. I knew it would look weird when people walked in our front door and the first thing they saw was an empty blue room. I knew it wouldn't take more than ten second for the greeting to be filled with awkwardness and pity. And that's not what I wanted to experience.

As the months began to go by, as life carried on, as events went by that we had planned on doing with a baby in tow, I sought the Lord looking for answers. I never doubted that God was still in control. Even as we were told on April 13th that the mother was keeping the baby. We praised God for the opportunity and knew He was sovereign in all things. But you still wonder why. Why did every single tiny piece of the puzzle wonderfully fall into place except for that very last piece? Why did we spend two months running around like chickens with our heads cut off to meet deadlines and complete paperwork and prepare a nursery? Why did we go to all of the trouble of painting a room plumage, only for it to sit empty?

I've realized that I will never understand all of the reasons why, but the Lord is daily filling my heart with peace as He shows me little by little why He chose to do what He did with us. And the biggest reason He's revealed to us so far is that He was teaching us the reality and the meaning behind words we have known forever, but never deeply experienced:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  -Romans 8:28

This is a verse that so many of us, as believers, memorize early on and cling to in times of trouble. I've encouraged many people with it in the past and I'm sure you have too. But like so many scriptures that we read and think we know and understand, I don't think I ever truly read that verse with the bitter sweet understanding that Paul wrote it with. We are not promised "good things" in this verse. We are not promised good times, good circumstances, or good feelings. If anything, this verse has a way of reminding us that difficulty is real, struggle is inevitable, and heartbreak is oddly necessary. We see in this verse that not all things may be good, but all things work for good. Sometimes the things that God works for our good are actually very painful. Why is that?

To accomplish His purpose.

We've seen little things over the last five months that reveal God's hand in working for our good and His purpose. We've thanked Him for giving us three days with Nathan's family, who we don't get to see very often anymore. We've thanked Him for allowing us to get our feet wet in the process of adoption as preparation for the future. We've praised Him that there is one less orphan in the world because a mother decided to keep her child. We've been amazed at the friendships He's brought to us through our journey. But I've also rejoiced and lived in awe of God revealing to me my very specific role in this baby's life: For 3 days, I got to be this baby's "mother through a window".

During those three days that we spent in Northwest Arkansas, we visited the hospital several times as we met with the lawyers and waited to find out what was next. While we were there, I took up my post at the viewing window, staring at the bundle of baby wrapped so tight on the other side of the glass. I watched the nurse give him a bath, comb his hair, dress him, wrap him up, and lay him in the bassinet to go to sleep. I watched Him stretch his hands and cry a few times. I watched him lay there all by himself with no one to hold him or gawk over him. I felt angry and protective of him because he had no one in the world to love him at the moment. He was in limbo--waiting for a decision to be made about who he would grow up to be. When we found out that his mother was going to keep him, one of my first feelings was anger that she had left him in that nursery for three days by himself. With no one to rock him or hold him or love him. That bothered me for several weeks until one day God slapped me in the face and put my anger to shame. He made it very clear to me that this sweet baby boy wasn't alone for three days with no one to love him. Not only was the Lord right there with him, but so were two other people (along with a host of grandparents and two unimaginably patient lawyers) that were specifically placed in this baby's path to love him and care for him during the time that his mother was faced with a life changing decision and unable to physically care for him. For three days God allowed me to love a baby through a window until he could be fully cared for by his mother. That was my purpose. This baby will never know me, nor will his mother, but God worked all things for my good, their good, and His purpose.

So the blue room still stands in our house. It is still empty, but it is full of meaning and purpose. It stands as a reminder for us that God is using all things for our good. Not to make us happy, not to make us live an easy life, and certainly not to give us all that we want. But to be become like Him in our sufferings and fulfill His purpose that leads us to Him.

The trials and struggles that we face in life are all different. Many of you have been through pain way worse than I could ever imagine and situations far more difficult than I've ever experienced. But we all have blue rooms. Blue rooms that remind us of what we think "could have been" or "should have been." Blue rooms that ask "why?"But praise Jesus that our hope does not rest in the trials of these blue rooms! Our hope firmly rests in Christ's sacrifice, resurrection, and promise of a future eternal life with Him. 

Adoption

To say that the past 60 hours of our lives have been the craziest, most up and down, roller coaster like hours of our lives is a major understatement. As many of you know, Nathan and I have been going through the process of possibly adopting a baby boy for the past month. This was not something we had pursued and found, but something that had been dropped into our laps as a blessing from the Lord. We announced this possibility to everyone in hopes that our closest friends and family would lift us, the mother, and the baby up in prayer as we proceeded in the process. We knew there could be the possibility of announcing this huge, exciting time in our lives to everyone only to come back and  announce that it did not work out as we had hoped. And we are sad to announce that that is what we are having to do.

Thursday morning we received a call around 9:30 that the mother had gone into labor 4 weeks early and was in the hospital. We immediately dropped everything, left work, and headed to meet our attorney. We spent the whole day waiting and waiting for some kind of news. News that we could go to the hospital, news that he was healthy, news that she had chosen a family for the baby. Any kind of news. Finally, at 6:10 the little guy made his appearance in the world! Even though he was 4 weeks early he was perfectly healthy and doing well! We were told that we would meet with the mother the next day, along with the other family interested in adopting this sweet boy (he was already very loved!), in hopes that she would be able to make a decision as soon as possible. To make a long story (with many twists and turns, ups and downs) short, the mother of the baby decided this afternoon that she wanted to keep him and raise him as her own.

Obviously this was heartbreaking news to hear. We have prayed for this mother and her baby for over a month now. We have come to know and love them in our hearts, even though we never had the opportunity of meeting either one of them in person. Our hearts ache at the loss of a child we never knew or held. But our hearts are full of joy, hope, and promise all at the same time.

We have stood on one firm and solid truth throughout every step of every day of this process: God alone knows what is best for this baby, this mother, us, and Himself. We knew and held firm to the fact that God would do what He saw best fit for all involved and most glorifying to Himself. We knew that this was a possibility. We knew that God did not owe us anything and neither did this mother. We have known that the road of adoption would not be an easy, clean-cut, perfect little garden full of daisies and butterflies. So today, and ever since Thursday, we have received the pieces of sad news with hope and faith. We trust and know that God knew His plans for this baby before we ever knew about him. He knew that he would never be ours and that he would find his home with his biological mother. He knew that He would lead us until it was time to stop and wait for whatever He has next for us. And we rest in knowing that He isn't finished with us and our adoption journey. With joyful hearts we look forward to all that the Lord has planned for us.

We want to thank each and every one of you for your kind words, love, encouragement, prayers, and cheers. You have loved us and supported us through these exciting days and we will be forever grateful for that. We do ask that you would continue to pray for this baby and his mother. That the Lord would guide them, comfort them, and lead them to Him in all that they do.

"Sovereign Lord, You alone know." --Ezekiel 37:3

Favorite Recipes

So we are 13 days into the New Year and I just can't even believe it! 2012 flew by so quickly and was full of so many blessings! We are eagerly looking forward to all that is to come in 2013!

I don't know about you guys, but the Brewers are already right in the middle of busyness in this New Year. There's always something going on just about every night of the week. So, in all of our busyness, I've spent the last few months looking for dependable, quick, easy, and yummy recipes to use through our busy weeks that won't just add to the stress. Some have been flops, but others have been great! So, in hopes of helping your busy lives, here are a few links to some of my favorites these days!

1. The biggest staple in the Brewer house is my Cheesy Chicken recipe! Nathan is so picky, but loves this and always suggests that it be our meal at least 3 out of 5 days a week (don't worry, I don't give in!). You can find the recipe here!

2. Our newest fav is this amazing Potato Soup! Cara Carroll is amazing and one of my favorite bloggers. She is super mom, super teacher, super crafter, and super chef! This Potato soup is absolutely fabulous and so easy to make! You can do it in the crock pot or on the stove top. I made it on the stove top one night and it only took about an hour! You just throw everything in the pot except for the cream cheese. Right before serving, place the cream cheese in a bowl and ladle one to two spoonfuls of soup onto it. Mix together until cream cheese is melted and THEN add to the large pot of soup. We had so much left over that I was able to freeze it and have it for three more lunches and one more dinner for both of us. It even heated up well! You would love this in these winter months! :)

3. Another new hit that we just tried this week is the recipe for Chicken Alfredo Roll Ups. Nathan loves anything with cheese and noodles, so I knew he would love this. The best part of this recipe is the homemade alfredo sauce. Now, I will say that this recipe was a little more time consuming if you make the homemade sauce (which I recommend), but it's definitely worth it!

4. If you are a crock pot lover, you would love this Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken. A friend of mine gave me this recipe after my many failed attempts to make crock pot dinners. I just happened to find the same recipe on another blog the same week. I'm awful with crock pot meals and I'm not sure why. However, this one was a success! I loved it fresh and even warmed up for lunch!

5. This Cheesy Bean Dip recipe was just shown to me on Friday! Our assistant principal made this for us at a meeting and I was just amazed at the taste! It is definitely the best dip I've ever had and so easy to make! It's about to go into the oven for small group tonight!

6. I've been trying to find some good breakfast recipes that can be made in advance so that I'm not rushing around in the mornings. Nathan has also started eating breakfast more often and I've been able to broaden his horizons with some new foods that he doesn't usually try! This Banana Oatmeal Muffin recipe is a great breakfast on the go and is very healthy! My favorite part about these is that they aren't grainy--my sweet picky husband doesn't like grainy textures, so the blended up oatmeal is hidden! I just made this today and definitely like the simple recipe, the simple prep (all thrown into a blender and poured into a cupcake pan!), and the great taste! I will be interested to try the recipe with other types of fruit over the next few weeks! 

I hope some of these help in your busy lives! Except for my Cheesy Chicken Recipe, they are all from blogs I have found on Pinterest, so all credit goes to the amazing bloggers for their help in making my life a little bit easier! :)

Getaway to Wisconsin!

So back at the end of October I took a long awaited trip to Wisconsin to visit one of my sweetest friends, Kinsey. Kinsey and I have been friends since the 6th grade and have many memories together.

8th grade flashback! My how young we were!

When we graduated from high school, I stayed here in Conway and she, being the adventurous one, traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin to pursue her dream of studying music. I am amazed when I think about how that was over four years ago now. Time has flown so quickly! Anyways, I always told Kinsey that I wanted to visit her and experience a new part of the country, but of course life got busy for both of us and it never happened. Even thousands of miles away, Kinsey has remained one of my closest friends. She's always been one of those friends that you can just pick up with right where you left off! So after one of our long catch up phone calls back in September, we decided to finally make this trip happen! I set out on Halloween and made my way to the Midwest, which I really just consider the north! :) I spent 4 days with Kinsey and got to see Appleton, as well as Chicago! It was so fun to see where she has lived, meet her friends, and experience something way different from little Conway, Arkansas. I've been meaning to post these pictures since I got back, but of course life has been busy, busy, busy! So here goes!

I have to say spending several hours in the sky that day traveling to Appleton was some of the most relaxing, joyous time I had had in a while! Lauren Chandler's EP had just come out that week and it was definitely one of the coolest things to be flying so high and listening to her version of "The Sparrow."

About to land in Appleton! I loved flying over Lake Michigan and seeing all of the landscapes!

The amazing house Kinsey lives in right by a river.

The amazing view from behind Kinsey's house!

Another shot of the river. I couldn't get enough of the fall foliage!

All of the houses were so pretty an unique!

On Thursday we drove to Chicago for my first visit ever!

Coming up on the city!

Of course we had to go see the Bean! The first grade teacher in me wondered how many germs were on that thing :)

A beautiful Cathedral that we went into to look around!

We happened upon an art gallery that had a whole section of Dr. Seuss artwork! Made me miss my babies!

Beautiful view in the middle of downtown Chicago after doing a little shopping!

After sight seeing for a little while we went and walked through the Art Institute. As we were walking in a couple walking out handed us their tickets and said they were good for the rest of the day! We were so excited that those sweet people saved us over $30.

One of my favorites from the gallery.

Chicago at night.

Beautiful!

We met up for dinner with some of Kinsey's friends from college. Hanging out in Chicago at night with people who really know the city made me feel 13! This small town girl had to keep up with them!

We spent the night in Chicago with one of Kinsey's friends and woke up the next morning to head back to Appleton. Before we left we stopped at the cutest little diner with amazing food!

Yum!

On our way out we stopped by Northwestern University to see the amazing view of the city next to Lake Michigan.

On our way back we had to stop at THE Mars Cheese Castle! The inner tourist in us came out for sure.

It's really a castle on the side of the interstate that just sells every kind of cheese you can imagine!

Ya gotta try the cheese head while you're in Wisconsin!

The rest of the weekend was spent at Lawrence, Kinsey's school. It was their annual Jazz Festival weekend, so we went to two great performances that really broadened my horizons. Kinsey has always been the one to help in that area of my life!

My last night in Appleton we went and tried out the Melting Pot for dessert. Oh. My. Word. Talk about amazing!! Absolutely heaven!

Sunday at the airport before I flew home!

I am so glad that I was able to spend so much time with Kinsey in Wisconsin. It was definitely hard being away from my normal daily life and my husband and my kiddos, but it was time well spent with a good friend. I am so proud of Kinsey for following her dreams and not settling for less than her best. She has worked so hard in the past four years and I know that she will do great things with her talents and abilities! She will be going to grad school soon and I am excited to see where she ends up so that I can start planning my next trip :)