January Summary

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Favorite Quote

“When one loves, one does not calculate.” –St. Therese

Podcast Perfection

• • Rachel Hollis on For The Love with Jen Hatmaker. Y’all. Rachel Hollis and Jen Hatmaker together. Enough said. This was awesome and I loved it! If you haven’t ordered Rachel’s new book Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be or Jen’s latest book Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life, go right this minute. You will thank me.
  • Emily Ley on For the Love with Jen Hatmaker.  Talk about a podcast that seriously made me do some major re-thinking about how I live my life!  Emily talked a lot about simplifying life, slowing down, being intentional.  It was  amazing.  I’m preparing to order Emily’s books, A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living and Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy and study some more!
  • If You Only Knew #2 Melanie Dale (from Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey).  Jamie is doing a special mini-series on her podcast called “If You Only Knew” to promote her new book, If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free, and Melanie talked about how she struggled with anger and yelling at her kids.  I’m telling you, I listened to it twice it seemed so good to me!

Making Memories

We didn’t do anything big or important this month, but there were sweet little moments like baking cookies or a Saturday family outing to the donut shop or reading before bed that were pretty special.

Braun found a prayer card to Mary and was quite taken with “Jesus’ Mama.” So he set up a shrine and since he found the card with some post it notes, he insists those are “Mary’s stickers” and they must stay with her.

We spent a couple of days at my parents’ helping with all the farm work.

Links Worth Looking

“My plan…His plan.” I love this so much. What a reminder. What an encouragement. What a way to change your entire outlook. “I’m coming Lord!”

Challenges

It’s been cold and windy here a lot, so we were all getting some cabin fever. So Ty went out one day and brought our heifer, Kyla, up to the window for a little visit.

I also found myself intimidated by the new Instant Pot I got and it took me a while to get brave enough to give it a whirl!  But so far I’ve succeeded with baked potatoes so there’s that!

Bookworm Report

I finished a great, easy read by Melanie Shankle called Church of the Small Things: The Million Little Pieces That Make Up a Life

My favorite quote from the book was: “Sometimes the biggest things God does start out in the smallest, most ordinary acts of daily faithfulness.”

I’ll give it 4 stars.

Forks and Knives

I tried several new recipes this month and we did a really great job of eating at home thanks to my meal planning goal.

First up, out of From Freezer to Table: 75+ Simple, Whole Foods Recipes for Gathering, Cooking, and Sharing, I made the homemade marinara sauce, homemade pesto, turkey pesto paninis, pink pasta, lasagna rolls, and cheeseburger soup. I thought they were all good, and I would make them all again, but the lasagna rolls were hands down my favorite!

Second, out of the newest Pioneer Woman cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It!: Simple, Scrumptious Recipes for Crazy Busy Lives, I made meatball soup and panko crusted chicken. I really liked them both and will make them again. I think the meatball soup would be my favorite here (add cheese and sour cream!)

Work Highlights

1. I got the chance to speak at the American Farm Bureau Convention with my friend Paul Goeringer. We gave an overview of major Ag Law issues in 2017.

2. My Texas Agriculture Law Blog got a little facelift thanks to my friend, Dylan.

3. My colleague, Steve retired at the end of the month, so I attended a retirement party in his honor. It was really inspiring to hear about the impact he has made through his Extension work. Someone said, “There is no telling how any family farms on the High Plains that Steve has saved.” Talk about a legacy!

Date Night

We didn’t get a date “night,” but it turned out that Ty and I were both off for MLK day, but the kids had school.  So, we managed to have a little lunch date at the local restaurant and spend the afternoon together.  We really enjoyed some time together, no matter the time of day.

Sabbath

Thanks to a great episode of Annie Downs’ podcast That Sounds Fun, I have started implementing a sabbath each week. Sundays are crazy with the kids and meal prep and laundry, but I have committed to taking an hour or two each week to rest and read and pray. I’ve really enjoyed carving this time out!

Travel

I burned up the road traveling all over the Panhandle for day trips, but my only overnight trip this month was for The AFBF Convention in Nashville. The Convention was at the Gaylord Opryland (you talk about something insane!) and I had a really good time!