Car Seats, Car Seats, and More Car Seats

Little Might is rapidly growing out of his infant car seat and it is just about time to get him another one. So when I was at Baby's R Us yesterday I decided that it would be good to look at them. I had already done some research online but wanted to look at them in person.

I became so confused when I was looking at them and I still think that the headache I had last night was due to the car seat shopping. As I was looking at them though I realized that I had no idea what the next car seat should be so I called Mr. T to see if he wanted to come and meet me when he was done with work. It actually worked out perfectly and he was able to come and look at them with me.

I think we have decided what the next seat will be for Little Might.

As we were looking though I could not help but think that I only had one car seat in my whole lifetime, at least that is what my mom says. Little Might, on the other hand, will have three to four different car seats.  Which each individual car seat will cost on average $100 - $150. Some car seats cost $300 plus and you do get what you pay for.

No, I am not in anyway undermining the safety value of car seats, I am simply stating that everything gets to be a lot. Yes, a lot financially but even more than that, in every other sense of the word.

Little Might currently has the Graco Snug Ride, which we like by the way, one of the great benefits is that it fits right into the stroller that we have, I used that convenience a lot when Little Might was an infant. It is part of a travel system. This is only a rear facing car seat, and good up to 25lbs.  If I would have to buy it again I would think about a convertible car seat, the all in one possibility for car seats. I do realize though that if we are blessed to have another child than that does not matter anyway, for the next child would need it. 

The next car seat, we think, will be the Evenflow Titan Elite. This car seat will be good up to 50lbs. It is considered a convertible car seat because it will face the rear until Little Might is 2 and than we can transition it to face forward. In the state of MN, a child needs to be facing back until he or she turns 2, at least that is what the sales clerk said last night. The AARP website recommends this as well.

We hope to not need the 3rd type of car seat, the forward facing convertible booster. We hope that by the time Little Might out grows the Elite we will be able to put him in the booster seat, which than will be good until he weights 100lbs.

Now that you probably know way more about car seats than what you ever wanted to know, and your head is swirling like mine, I will leave you with a much more comforting thought.

We are blessed to know that our good Lord is watching over all our children, and will protect them even when we can't.

Blessings,
Joy

The Price of Staying at Home vs The Price of Working

Greetings~

Last week Mr. T and I had a wonderful but thought provoking conversation, especially for this melancholic, about the reality of being a stay at home mom. Is it realistic in today's society to live on one income?  If so how do you way the pros and cons of both sides?  How do you decide the difference between prudence and the fact that God will provide?

As a man Mr. T's nature is to want to provide for our family making sure that their is always bread on the table and a roof over our head. That means now and in to the future including at the ripe old age of retirement.

My nature as a women inclines me to worry more about the upbringing of Little Might and any other children that we may be blessed to have in the future. That means that I don't want any body else to raise my children.

I truly feel that at times I take the burden on too heavily, thinking, that as a Catholic women I am 100% responsible for raising my own children and for providing a wholesome, loving, welcoming home, for Mr. T and all our children. I do feel that the women's place if at all possible and yes with sacrifice is in the home.  I realize though that that is not always possible, and I have dear friends who would love to stay at home but they have discerned that it is not possible for them to do that. Yes, I respect that, and more than anything I feel for them and can only imagine that the Lord gives them the grace, or maybe more applicable the energy to work away from home.

I also think that it is sad and troubling that our society has lost the value of having moms stay-at-home. I do believe that this is a problem that has had great consequences on our families, in our homes, and throughout society. All the way from children not experiencing the love that they should from parents, to women not realizing there worth and value if they choose to stay at home.

This weekend I saw a wonderful bumper sticker. Mothering a great profession. May we as individuals and may our society come to realize that being a mother is the greatest profession that a women will ever be entrusted with.

Likewise I am reminded of a great quote,

A Christian mother cannot claim the honor 

of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. 

She need not. 

She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—

a dwelling for an immortal soul, 

the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. 

The angels have not been blessed with such a grace… 

What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this—to be a mother?”

~Cardinal Mindzenty

Blessings,

Joy

Best Laid Plans

The best laid plans sometimes go awry.

My family went camping again this past weekend, and yes, plans did not always go as we thought they should.

By nature, I am a planner. I plan, I schedule and yes, I like things to go the way that I think they should. Yes, I do feel as if the Lord is working on that. As a wife and mother I am so realizing that I cannot always plan and schedule the things to go the way I think they should. I cannot always schedule when Little Might will need me. I definitely cannot plan or schedule Mr. T. Neither should I, which means that I need to learn how to go with the flow.

With all of that being said though, the Lord is definitely working on me, for our best laid plans for the weekend went awry, I am happy to say though, that I simply went with the flow and things turned out great.

We were supposed to stay until Monday but heavy rain and hail was in the forecast for Sunday night and Monday morning. We decided not to take a chance.

While at camp we had a wonderful time! 

We went hiking...

We went to a Fiddler Jam, and Little Might had a lot of fun dancing...

So we left a day early which meant that we left on Sunday afternoon and got back late Sunday night. Which still meant though that we had all day Monday to spend together and that we did. We had a great day!

We started it off by sleeping in, even Little Might slept in! :-)

Than we went to the zoo...

Than to the conservatory...

Than we enjoyed some ice cream and went to daily mass, which was wonderful. 
It was a great day, an amazing weekend and a great lesson in going with the flow, allowing God to be in control. 

Manic Monday

Greetings ~
I hope you each had a great weekend. As you read this I am still camping with my family. So I will share stories with you tomorrow, once I get back.

The Menu for Manic Monday

We will have a short week here in the Mr. T. house, so the menu for this week will definitely be shorter and you will see a few duplicates from last week, last week was extremely crazy getting ready for camping so I still have a few things left over.

Tuesday - Pasta Shells, that are currently frozen in the freezer
Wednesday - Tilapia and grilled veggies
Thursday - Leftovers
Saturday or Sunday -Steaks on the Grill

Yes, I have a bonus day on here. I hope to grill I nice big round steak that is in the freezer, on Saturday or Sunday. I am going to share with you a little tip that Mr. T and I learned two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago for Fathers Day I wanted to grill a nice big piece of t-bone steak that we had. Both of these pieces of meet, the t-bone and the round steak, came from a local farmer, and from a lean milking cow we are assuming for the meet is very lean.

Two weeks ago when I wanted to grill the t-bone I forgot to take out the meet the night before, and likewise I knew that it was going to need to be marinated, for it was so lean. So I decided to put the crock-pot to work. I put the frozen steak in the crock-pot with soy sauce, lemon juice, and worcestershire sauce, set it on low and let crock-pot do the thawing and marinating at the same time. We than finished it up on the grill.

The results were scrumptious! The steak had a very flavorful layer of char on it - delicious! This is exactly what I plan to do next weekend, as we all celebrate a long weekend with Independence Day!

Blessings,
Joy

Sabbath Sense Saturday

Solemnity of Corpus Christi

"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day."

From the Gospel of John Chapter 6

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, translated in English is the Feast of the Body of Christ! The Eucharist is the "source and summit" of our life as Catholics. On this great feast we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. We celebrate, that as Catholics we can come together to receive the Holy Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. 

When we receive the Eucharist, we ourselves become a Tabernacle. We have Christ in us! Wow, think about that for a second, Christ will literally dwell within us. It is hard for us to grasp, ok, at least it is hard for me to grasp, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, dwells within me at that very moment. 

On this solemnity it is very common for people through the world to come together for Eucharistic Processions. People come together to witness to the Truth of Jesus. To witness to the mystery of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist that was established on Holy Thursday, when Jesus gathered together with His disciples and changed bread into his body and wine into His blood; saying "this is my body, this is my blood"!

Every Sunday and every day that we attend mass we participate in this mystery. When the priest in Persona Christi, actually changes bread and wine into Christ's body and blood.
Wow, again what an amazing gift of salvation Christ gives us.

May we have the chance to "bow down in adoration" before the Blessed Sacrament this weekend!


Blessings,
Joy

Frugal Friday

Greetings and Welcome to Frugal Friday~

We are getting ready to go camping again this weekend! Yes, I am keeping my expectations in check, really hoping for a good weekend but trying not to get to excited.

So today's Frugal Friday is going to include a few things that both Mr. T and I did, frugally, to get things ready.

As I was doing the meal planning and meal prep for the weekend Mr. T was busy working on our new awning for the camper.

One of the things that I have done to prepare for this camping trip, was bring out our food dehydrator. I am really excited to say that we have candied strawberries, banana chips, grapefruit rings, and apple crisps for the weekend, can say yum! The fruit will make great snacks through out the trip, and it is so much easier to pack than fresh fruit.

This is the first time that I have used the dehydrator that I was able to pick up for only $5. I think I will be using it more often though after this great experience. I am excited to try some veggies on their next, especially come fall when all the crops come in, and I can pick up lots of veggies at the farmers market for just a few bucks.

Yes, those are flowers that you see in the picture. I LOVE fresh flowers and if could I would have fresh flowers  all the time on the table. But, at last I can't but I do try to pick  flowers up for every camping trip it adds a really nice feminine touch to the camper. I set them next to the chocolates that I always have on the table as well when camping. I found the flowers for $3 at Trader Joe's, the same place where I got hamburger for $2.50 and a bottle of wine, 2 buck chuck for only $2.99.  I love Trader Joe's!

As I indicated as I was doing the meal prep throughout the week Mr. T was putting together the canopy for the camper. The canopy is up and it looks great, and it has already been helpful in keeping us dry. I promise to take pictures this weekend and will post them on Tuesday,

I hope you each have a great weekend and stay tuned for Sabbath Sense Saturday.

Blessings,
Joy

Mr. T and I; Our Engagement Story

Thanks to Joy Beyond the Cross I realized that Betty Beguiles is asking for engagement stories, and realized that it would be fun to post Mr. T's and I's and at the same time be an exciting adventure down memory lane.

Mr. T and I started dating on January 19th, 2008! The Lord blessed our relationship even before this point. I in true girl style would always think and wonder about guys do they like me, hmm do I like them, and the like. The true blessing is that I never really did that about Mr. T. The Lord was guarding my heart. That does not mean though that our good Lord was not preparing my heart. Since the fall of the year prior I had started to notice Mr. T at different gatherings including at my 30th birthday party that year, for some odd reason I have a lot of pictures of him! :-)

Once we started dating we had a beautiful courtship, we always included some type of sacrament or adoration into each of our dates and would have marvelous conversations about life, marriage, and children. As that was all going on I would have my fair share of what I called "freak out sessions" where I would basically "freak out" about the relationship get scared or apprehensive about Gods plans or our plans in regards to the relationship. This especially happened when I realized that courtship and love is not all a fairytale like it is in the movies. At those times though I would pray and would be completely at peace at the end, hmm, was God guiding the relationship or what!

Over the course of about 10 months I came to realize that yes, Mr. T was the man that Christ had chosen for me to marry. So by November of 2008 I was ready for him to propose and was pretty sure that it would be any day. This was confirmed when Mr. T and I were out one evening and I realized that he, in a very smooth way, took off one of my rings and put it on his finger, he was getting my ring size. :-)  By this time I had a list of 4-5 dates in my head when I thought he would propose.

Well, soon the next two months passed and I still did not have a ring on my finger - everybody else knew that as well. People were always looking at my left hand, and not always very discreetly. At one point I even told Mr. T that I was going to start wearing gloves all the time.

By this point we were a week away from our 1 year anniversary of courting, and that was the only date left in my mind when I thought that he would propose.
Well, Mr. T, decided that it would fun to play with my mind, and totally throw me off track. Little did he know he was playing on dangerous ground.

During a conversation a week before he told me that we should begin to discern our relationship and maybe think about taking the next step in a few months. I was clearly upset, and was thinking what do you mean BEGIN, I thought that is what we were doing the last few months. As I read over a few entries in my journal I am reminded of how irritated I was, and then how humbled I was. After becoming upset and frustrated I realized that if I truly thought that Mr. T was the man of prayer that I thought he was then I needed to trust his decision as well as his timing. So with that in mind I spent the next week trying to be content with where are relationship was or was not, for that matter. At one point I even became relieved that he was not going to propose on our one year anniversary, I almost told Mr. T that.

On January 19th though we had made plans to meet for mass, go to confession, and than say the rosary in the Marian Chapel. During mass that evening I started to think that Mr. T was going to propose, and had an inner struggle about it, for I knew that he was not going to. Needless to say that was part of my confession, as well.

After mass we went back to the Marian Chapel, which was still beautifully decorated for the Christmas season, and so gorgeous that a few weeks prior I had the thought that it would be a great place to become engaged in. We knelt down to say the rosary, but, Mr. T took off his coat I thought that that was a very odd thing to do. I remember having a hard time concentrating, I think I even said a few prayers wrong. After praying the rosary, we stood up and Mr. T let go of my hand and preceded to move from my right side to my left, give me a brief hug and than take my left hand, kneel down in front me and proceeded to ask me to "Marry Him" after a moment of complete shock I replied yes.

Later, Mr. T told me that he needed to throw me off track, because everybody expected it. Yes, he most certainly did and made it one of the amazing adventurous in our journey of love,

We were happily married 7 months later, on the feast of the Coronation of Mary.

Thank you for letting me share a story that is very dear to my heart and one where I can sill recall many images, ones that I hope to never forget.

God Bless and Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Pray for Us!
Joy

My Many Blessings

Greetings ~

Christ has blessed me with an amazing husband, a beautiful little boy, and with faith in Him as well as a love for the Catholic Church. In my melancholic mood yesterday though I lost track of all of these blessings, as well as the many more that Christ has given me. To put it simply I allowed misunderstandings to dwell in my heart and eat away at me. Yes, I am a total melancholic at times. By the end of the day though I was given a chance to think about the many blessings that I have been given.

I believe that I have been given both incredible life altering blessings, you know those blessings, that have changed our life completely, the ones that we should pray in thanksgiving for daily. I also believe though that I have been given many little blessings, that I need to recognize, and be thankful for. Their is a possibility that these are just little favorites in life, and those little things that I need to recognize and be thankful for, akin to simply stopping and smelling the roses.

What I would like to do though is count off 10 Blessings in my life!  Five large blessings in my life, the life altering ones, but than I am also going to name off 5 smaller blessings in my life. I would encourage you to do the same, simply because I think it is good for us to remember our blessings, and be thankful for them. I would also be delighted to hear from you though, what are the top 10 blessings in your life.

1. Mr. T, my husband and incredible partner in life. 
2. Little Might, my 1 year old son, who constantly has a contagious smile on his face.
3. My faith in God and my love for the Catholic Church
4. The ability to attend Mass and Adoration
5. My parents

1. The trips planned this summer with my family
2. The many memories of love that I can recall in an instant 
3. The flowers that bloom outside
4. The beautiful weather and the little porch that I am sitting on as I write this
5. The glass of red wine that I am enjoying as I write this, and the cup of coffee that I will have tomorrow morning

Thank you for reading and it was just a total joy to write this, and an amazing reminder of how much I have to be thankful for as well the fact that I need to stop and smell the roses sometimes, i.e. be thankful for the little things in life. 

Blessings,
Joy

My Time is Your Time

I woke up one day last week at 6:00am, to Little Might crying and realized that he was  already awake for the day. To my complete disbelief and irritation, I was not ready to wake up, in any extent of the imagination.

I realized at that time, again, that as a mother my time is NOT my own, my time at many times seems to belong to my family. My son, first, usually; than my husband, than God third, and well, yes myself fourth.

When I think of the fact that I am fourth on the list I usually just smile and laugh and realize that that comes with the joy and the privilege of being a mother. :-)

Usually that happens, accept for when I know that I need a brake, today may just be one of those days.  Little Might is tired and he is on a sugar high, from a few bites of a cookie cake this morning. Did I say that he's teething as well - so NOT a good combination. I was looking forward to an afternoon of washing clothes, working on the computer, and maybe even putting in a movie, while Little Might slept for a nice LONG afternoon nap, seeing he missed his morning nap. Let's just say that that is NOT happening.

What I really wanted to write about though is how, we as women still need to put God first. If we truly believe that we are first and foremost a daughter of Christ, a Child of God, than He needs to be first in our lives. Likewise, if we are going to be the loving and compassionate wife and mother that we are called to be, ready to lay down our life for our spouse and children, than we need to put God first in our life. So how do we do that?


I do realize that the way I put God first in my life, as a wife and mother, will be very different than how a religious sister, or even a single women would put God first in their life. I think it is safe to say though that I miss the time in my life when I could go to daily mass and adoration, more easily. Maybe I wish I had more energy and strength to do those things with Little Might.

I have come up with a list though of things that I think we as women could do and probably need to do. Or at least I know that I need to do these things.  

1. Remember that my time changing diapers and housecleaning, can be for the Glory of God, and that I am fulfilling the calling of my vocation at those times in my day and life.
2. Begin each day with morning prayer: 15-20min. of time with God my Father. 
3. End each day with evening prayer, preferably with my husband.
4. Little Might is already one which means that I need to begin teaching him the sign of the cross. We will make the sign of the cross in the morning when he wakes, at night before he goes to bed, and before each meal. 
5. The last thing on my own personal list is that I will begin going to adoration once a week again.

Let us pray together for the strength and courage to each put God first in our lives literally and in meaningful ways.

Blessings in Christ,
Joy

On a side note, Little Might is now sleeping. :-)

Manic Monday - A Tribute to My Husband

Greetings and Welcome to Maniac Monday  ~

I hope you each had a wonderful weekend!

First of all, its Manic Monday!  Can I just say it feels a bit like a manic Monday here in the Mr. and Mrs. T household. This week will take a bit of planning and organization on my part. I have four days to get all the normal week long things done, including doing a few last minute things for Mr. T's Birthday - TODAY,  and to get ready for another camping trip starting with leaving the house on Thursday night, woohoo! I am really excited about this one, I am going to try really hard though to keep my expectations in check.

So on to the menu for this week!
Monday - Date Night!
Tuesday - Talipia and Potatoes
Wednesday - Frozen Pasta Shells that I made up and froze a few weeks ago.
Thursday on the road!

Camping Menu
Friday 
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Individual Pizzas
Saturday 
Breakfast - Omelets in a Bag
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Hobo Dinners
Sunday
Brunch after mass - we will go out in town
Dinner - Tacos in a Bag or Hotdogs over the fire
Monday
Breakfast - Pancakes and Sausage
Lunch - Sandwiches

Now that we are all hungry ... I would like to take a moment to to say Happy Birthday to my amazing husband.

I am so blessed that God has provided me with an awesome husband one that is willing to work through the challenges and trials of life. While standing firm in his faith and continuing to be the man that I can lean on and trust submitting to the decisions that he seems is best for our family. I am blessed that Mr. T is truly a man of God, and the partner that God has given me, truly challenging me to be a women of God, not to take life to seriously at times, helping me to enjoy life in its individual moments, while inspiring me to be a women worthy of his love.

Happy Birthday, Mr. T!

Blessings,
Joy

Sabbath Sense Saturday

Greetings and Welcome to Sabbath Sense Saturday ~

We celebrate a few remarkable days tomorrow, we celebrate another awesome solemnity in the Catholic Church, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and we celebrate Father's Day!!!

There is an amazing bible passage in the Gospel reading for tomorrow that will help to set the stage for today's reflection.

"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life."

John 3:16

For the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate how Christ is present with us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Father - Our creator and protector 

Son - The one who showed us how to love by laying down his life for us. 

Holy Spirit - The constant guide that we have with us to lead and direct us - daily, minute to minute - AMEN!

The great mystery that lies in the Holy Trinity is that all three are found in one being...God...as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When working with Middle School students I would always use the example of Jello to explain how three can be separate but one. Jello made up of three substances, hot water, cold water, and sugar, they each are separate but yet you can combine them and they are one substance, the Holy Trinity is one being.

This example of jello is not meant to undermine or make light in anyway of the marvelous, great theological mystery that the Trinity is and I do truly believe that it is a mystery for a reason it goes beyond our human ability to comprehend. Non-the-less though the jello is a fun learning tool for students.

When we look at the Holy Trinity the first element is God as Father. God gives us an example of love and protection, two virtues of a great earthly father.

I have been blessed with an amazing father here on earth, one that has protected and provided for me, as well as my mom and my younger brother throughout our life. The picture above is one of my favorite pictures of my dad and I, it was taken on my wedding day as my dad was walking me up the aisle.

I feel as if the picture tells a story of love, a story that looks at the past and the future.

My face is one of love, hope, and excitement as I look at my groom, my soon to be husband at that point. I am thinking of the future, looking ahead at what will be.

My father, on the other hand is looking at the past, at the road that brought me to this day. He is hoping praying that he can trust the guy that stands at the foot of the alter, waiting to take my hand in marriage. 

Soon my dad will hand me over, he will literally, in many ways, give me away. He will allow me to take another name, he will turn over part of the responsibility of protecting and caring for me to someone else. 

I feel that so many people in our society do not respect the role of the father, and that likewise so many fathers do not take on the proper responsibility of being the protector of being the father that is willing to lay down his life for his children. 

So on this Fathers Day I would like to take a moment to say thank you to my father for showing me what love is, and for constantly providing for and protecting my mother and us kids, through all the trials of life, even to this day.

I also think it is very appropriate to pray for all men today, for all fathers that they will have the courage and the strength to stand up and be real men, men of integrity and faith, showing true love and chivalry.

Blessings,
Joy

Frugal Friday and Giveaway Winner

Greetings ~
Welcome to Frugal Friday on Adventurous Beginnings!

First of all though, drum roll please....
The winner of the very first giveaway on Adventurous Beginnings is... sburn03, congratulations, your gift card has been sent, via email. Thank you to everybody that has become a follower of Adventurous Beginnings. If you have not become a follower I encourage you to do so, and in hopes of making it easier I have added a few more ways that you can use to follow.
 
I am very excited to say that I have a few followers and have had close to 600 page views in the last week. Thank you!!!

Now, onto Frugal Friday - Groupon

It was just a few months ago that I started to pay attention to the many coupon sites out there. At first I did not know what to think and really was not sure that I wanted to start receiving more emails and I was afraid of spam from giving out my email address.

Well, since then things have changed and I love some of these sites. My favorite one is probably Groupon, or at least that is the one that I seem to use the most. With Groupon Mr. T and I have been able to eat at a fabulous Sushi Buffet, go to a car show, get $20 worth of clothing from Old Navy for only $10, and to top things off Mr. T. will be receiving a really nice meal at one of his favorite restaurants for his birthday, this coming Monday, shh, he does not know. He knows that we are going out but he does not know where we are going. 

The most exciting thing about Groupon and most of these other sites is that everything is 50% to 90% off. But, a word of caution about these sites, as with everything you purchase it is only frugal and a smart purchase if it is in your budget and if it is something that you will use. Most of these coupons have deadlines and you NEED to read the fine print to make sure that you will use the coupon before the deadline, otherwise you will end up wasting $10-$30 on up . That is not frugal.

Another one of my favorite sites besides Groupon is Plum District. Plum District is a great deal site for Moms, Grandmas, or anybody with a lot of nieces and nephews. I already have $60 in gift cards that I am going to use to purchase Christmas presents for Tim nephews. :-) Which I will admit is such a great feeling.

Now, you are probably thinking how can I get in on this. Well, I have included links to my favorite sites here, they are referral links, if you do not feel comfortable with this than please go directly to their website.

https://www.plumdistrict.com/?ref=uefda5958886



       http://www.groupon.com/r/uu22471612

Please note, that if you do use either of these links I will be considered as referring you and will receive a bonus, thank you.
If you do not feel comfortable with that please use plumdistrict.com or groupon.com to sign-up.

Blessings,
Joy

A Mothers Humility

Greetings~

There are two virtues that I think God gives mothers and wife's the constant ability to grow in, patience and humility.

My lesson yesterday was that of humility.

Half way through a very disjointed day, I found a pattern for a shirt skirt that sounded so easy to make, I got really excited and decided that today would be a perfect day to try it, besides it was time to be productive and to get out of the house.

The first step was to find some XL mens t-shirts. So I headed to the Goodwill. The trip was fairly productive I found 3 t's for under $4. I was really excited and was thinking that this was frugality at its best, 3 skirts for under $4, can you really beat that.

Than I got home and I needed to make them, which meant shirring them. Now, I cannot sew, but that wasn't going to stop me, for the directions looked so easy.

Well, lets just say that I have now ruined one of the t's and I definitely DO NOT have a skirt that I can wear.

To top things off when I was working on my failed project Mr. T came in and showed me where Little Might had actually hurt himself in a small incident from earlier. I still feel completely humbled every time he gets hurt. Some how I think I should always be able to protect him, from every minor scrape and bruise. 

These two little incidents, would not be that big of a deal if it was not for the vision that I have of all the qualities that a wife and mother should have. From having the ability to have an immaculate house all the time, children under control, fresh bread constantly baking in the oven, and freshly laundered clothes, along with the ability to sew those clothes.

I do realize that their are only two women that could ever live up to my perfect vision, one would be the mothers and wives on TV, and only those from the 1950's, and our Blessed Mother, Mary.

The truth is that we will never be able to live up to the perfect vision of a wife and mother, and the even great truth is that we are NOT called to be perfect, we are simply called to be obedient. Obedient to the call that Christ has for each and every one of us. There is a quote from St. Therese of Lisieux that I am reminded of, "Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be." The wonderful thing about Christ is that He only wills us to be that what he knows we can be, that what we have the capability of becoming, with His help, His grace, His mercy.

The other truth and one that brings just as much comfort is the fact that my dear husband loves me even though Little Might got a bruise on his finger, and he does not blame me. He also loves me even though I cannot sew, and he probably knows the truth that I still refuse to believe, that I will never be able to sew. The funny fact is that when I told him about this project when he got home he said, why don't you just go buy a skirt. Yes, humility, he knew that it was going to be a disaster. Despite that my dear husband allowed me to try and even helped in the process.

Who knows, I may give up on complete frugality for the day and simply go buy a skirt, I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

So it is with the Love of Christ and the Love of my dear Mr. T that I will grow in humility.

Blessings,
Joy

Free Summer Adventures

Greetings~
The beginning of last week was very hot here in MN, we even broke a record, 102 degrees, that was not only a record breaker for the day, but, for the hottest day in the last 20+ years. WOW!!!

I am NOT a huge fan of the heat, especially if I am not indoors with central air. Needless to say we do not have central air we only have one window air conditioner that is used to keep the bedrooms livable.

So my goal for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of last week was to find places to go that are air conditioned as well as FREE and FUN! I think I did pretty good - the "Little Might" and I had a few great Adventures.

On Monday we went to the library, Little Might had so much fun cruising around, there were so many nooks and crannies for him to explore and the floor was carpeted and freshly vacuumed! :-)  It was so nice for him to explore, and he found many age appropriate activities.

 

We had so much fun that we decided to go back to another library the next day. On Tuesday we headed out with some friends of ours including another little boy only two months older than Little Might they had so much fun pretending to fish, Little Might had more fun trying to eat all the fish that he caught. :-)

On Wednesday, it was cooler outside so we headed to the splash pad. It was a blast, Little Might was a bit apprehensive of all the water spouts at times and stayed close to mom. I though was also VERY concerned with the hard cement, I just wanted to make sure that he did not fall. Sorry, I did not get any good pictures of Little Might playing, I was more concerned, making sure that he did not fall.

We had so much fun those few days and the best thing is that all activities were free, not including my Iced Mocha's! :-). I encourage you to check out the activities that are free in your area, you may be surprised, I was. Make sure that you check out the local library, libraries are no longer just for reading.

Don't forget today is the last day to sign-up for a free $10 gift card - how do I do this you say, well simply become a follower of Adventurous Beginnings and you we will be signed up. Wow, what a deal! Good Luck!

Blessings,
Joy

No Expectations

Greetings:
Before I forget there are only 2 more days left to be entered into the drawing to receive the $10 gift card for Target. Simply, sign-up as a follower and you will be entered into a the drawing, what a great deal. :-)

Now onto my post!

Starting with some long over due pictures of our $300 Camper that we bought on Craigslist!

The outside of the camper!

The coffee corner!!!

My chocolate for the weekend, sitting on the table, and the beautiful view of the lake!

Last Friday when I was getting ready for the camping trip to WI I constantly reminded myself to lower my expectations and to not have any. The reason for this is because last year when we went camping for the first time I was so excited, it was going to be great to get away and to have a vacation.

Little did I realize at the time that my vacations with the family were going to be VERY different, they were no longer going to be "vacations" in the normal sense of the word, or at least how I looked at them, a time of relaxing and getting away from all the stresses of life. Well when the stress in your life is trying to get used to being a mother and a wife, it does not go away when you go camping. :-) In fact I remember thinking that camping that first time was way harder than just being at home. Thankfully camping got easier last summer, but, I still new that I needed to keep my expectations in check.

This time around though when I got excited about getting away and being on vacation. I quickly changed my thinking a bit and reminded myself to lower my expectation, and that the point of the vacation was not for me as a mother to relax and "go on vacation" but to enjoy time with my family, build memories for years to come, and to enjoy nature.

I am happy and extremely excited to say that that all happened. We had a great time and I wish that we could have stayed longer.

Mr. T, was wonderful and he really helped out a lot, there were a few times when I got tired or irritated, and he was right there to help, truly helping me to enjoy and to relax a bit during the weekend. I also know though that it helped that Little Might was a year older and that I am a tiny bit more sure of what I am doing as a mother, and as a wife. Even though that sometimes changes on a daily basis.

I am extremely thankful for the beautiful weather that we had, overall, and for the amazing campsite that we had right on the lake. Our front yard of the camper was the lake. I was fortunate enough to wake up and have coffee while I looked at the lake. I grew up near the shores of Lake Superior, so I love the water and I truly believe that bodies of water, rather it be a lake, river, or ocean are some of God's greatest creations.

Don't forget to become a follower before Wednesday night and you can be entered into the drawing for a $10 gift card for Target!


Blessings,
Joy

Manic Monday

Welcome to Manic Monday on Adventurous Beginnings ~

My Monday's always seem to be a bit hectic, trying to recover from a busy weekend while getting things in order for the week. I always want to get so much done and my body always seems to lag a bit and wants extra sleep. I am not sure about you but I have not learned how to sleep and be productive at the same time. OK, lets work on that, there has to be a way, right! :-)

Today seems to be no different, especially after an amazing camping weekend, both Mr. T and I said that it was our best yet. :-)

At last, back to Maniac Monday, on Monday's I will always share with you any big outings for the week, as well as the menu for the week, I enjoy reading other peoples menus plan as well as getting dinner ideas. As of right now I just do a menu for dinners Monday through Thursday night, our weekends seem to be to much up in the air especially for the summer.

I am also very close to doing a menu for lunches. I am realizing that I want to be more intentional about what Little Might is eating. The menu for lunches have not started yet but they probably will by the end of the summer, for sure.

Besides sharing my menu on Adventurous Beginnings, I post the menu for the week on my white board in the kitchen. The white board includes, the menu, the weeks feast days, as well as the schedule for the week. The almighty white board also includes inspirational quotes that I sometimes need, as well as shopping lists that I can add to when ever I need to. I would be lost with out this, it was the best thing that I started, truly adding a bit of organization to my life and the house. Always a good thing! 

On to the Menu for the week:
Monday - Lasagna - I will be making a double batch today - one to bring to friend that just had a healthy little boy!
Tuesday - Leftover Lasagna - I have two meetings on this night
Wednesday - Grilled Veggies and Turkey Burgers
Thursday - Rice Hotdish

I hope you each have a great start to the week.

Blessings,
Joy

Sabbath Sense Saturday

Welcome to Adventurous Beginnings and to the first installment of Sabbath Sense Saturday.

On Saturdays my blog will always include a reflection on one of Sunday's readings, or on a Saint, in the Catholic Church that we will celebrate within the next week.

The idea for Sabbath Sense Saturday's came to mind because when I was the Director of Youth Ministry and RCIA coordinator a few years ago one of the things that I did was write bulletin articles once a month and I really enjoyed doing that. So now I will be able to write my own mini bulletin article every week just for you, my readers. :-)

I am really excited to say that we have an incredible feast, Solemnity to start us of with, the Solemnity of Pentecost. :-)

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit!

I have been extremely fortunate to have had the privilege and the honor of working with both teens and adults as they prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation, the sacrament within the Catholic Church that stems from the Solemnity of Pentecost. When we celebrate the truth of the disciples being filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit; Wisdom, Understanding, Fortitude, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, and Wonder and Awe in the Lord.    

From these seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which one do you feel God has given you and which one do you feel the need to continue to pray for. 

I know that personally in my life I have been blessed with the gift of Wisdom or Understanding but need to pray daily for the gift of Fortitude to live out my life as christian. 

May God bless you and your family with a wonderful weekend and an amazing Solemnity of Pentecost. May we each have the courage and the strength to pray that we may be filled this weekend with the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we to may to be disciples of Christ. 

I hope to see you back here at Adventurous Beginnings on Monday, for Maniac Monday. 

Blessings, 

Joy :-) 

Frugal Friday

Greetings:

Welcome to Frugal Friday on Adventurous Beginnings!

Frugal Friday will always consist of a piece of money saving advice or a story of how my family has been able to pinch a few pennies along the way.

I have a GREAT story to share with you for our first Frugal Friday!

I grew up camping as a child and my husband and I knew that we would have to camp for our family vacations, in hopes that we could enjoy long weekends away, and even a few weeks away, we don’t have much money in our budget for hotels.

Last summer we were getting ready to go camping for the first time as a family with Mr. T’s  side of the family. At the time Little Might was only 2 months old and the thought of trying to tent camp with a newborn was not very appealing, likewise I was feeling as if I needed/wanted some of the luxurious of a bed and electricity, I still had few aches from pregnancy complications . So to say the least tenting was becoming more of not an option for us. So Mr. T and I put our thinking caps on and went to one of our favorite websites, Craigslist.

We started to look at pop-up campers. We found many campers in the thousand dollar range, we just had a baby that was not going to work. Than we found a 93 Jayco 12 footer with a king and a queen bed, for only $300.
Praise God!!!

As one might of guessed though it was NOT in excellent condition it was EXTREMELY dirty inside and the canvas was all moldy.But with a lot of elbow grease and I mean a lot, gallons upon gallons of Chlorine, Hot Sun, and disinfectant, we were able to turn our $300 into a wonderful investment filled with many memories and that is just after 1 summer. 

Now the three of us are ready for many more adventures this summer. Starting this weekend. We are headed to the GREAT state of WI to go camping with my family.

I promise to have pictures for you next week.

Have a great day, and stay tuned for Saturday Sabbath Sense, tomorrow. Don't forget become a follower by next Wednesday and you will be entered into a drawing to receive a $10 Target Gift Card.

Blessing,
Joy

A Night on the Patio with Friends - A few summer recipes

Greetings:

Welcome to Adventurous Beginnings – I am glad that you stopped by. One of the things that I would like to do with this blog is pass on great recipes that I find as I explore the land of culinary endeavors – adventures.

A few nights ago we had some friends over for cocktails on the patio we got kind of ambitious and I made Lemon Coolers as Mr. T made grilled banana boats.

We choose the Lemon Coolers because we had Bourbon on hand for some Bourbon Chicken that my husband is going to try. I will share with you that future adventure when it occurs. 

We enjoyed the lemon coolers but will be playing around with the recipe a bit, definitely using sorbet instead of sherbet and adding a bit more sugar and more mint – I should not 

be as skimpy on the ingredients as I sometimes tend to be.  You can also vary the amount of bourbon compared to the amount of club soda - we all added more club soda at the end as well.

Lemon Cooler Recipe

2 ounces bourbon

4 ounces club soda

2 scopes lemon sorbet

4 sprigs of mint

1/2 tsp of sugar

Place 3 sprigs of mint and the sugar in the bottom of a drink worthy glass.

Grind the mint and the sugar together.

Pour the bourbon and the club soda into the glass

Add the sorbet and top with the last sprig of mint.

Enjoy! :-)

Grilled Banana Boats

1 Banana per person

Extra fruit - we used strawberries and blueberries - I also think that oranges, honeydew, and pineapple would be very good.

Preheat the grill - we have an electric grill outside so that is very easy!

Next take a banana and slice it down the center.

Pry the it open a bit

Place the fruit in the center of the banana.

Place each banana on the grill until the skin is brown. 

Enjoy!

The whole evening turned out to be a wonderful night! We enjoyed the time with our dear friends sipping lemon coolers while eating banana boats. 

I hope you enjoy the recipes, if you do try them PLEASE tell me how they were, I would love to hear from you.

Stay well until tomorrow, when you can look forward to the first post for Frugal Friday. 

Blessings, 

Joy

New Beginnings

Greetings this is Joy~

Welcome to my new blog Adventurous Beginnings. This blog will journey through all of the adventurous beginnings in life, the past, the present, and the future, while concentrating on the things that are really important in life, faith, and family! 

I started to think about doing a blog about a year ago, and trust me enough of my family and friends have told me that I should start a blog and indicated that they would be interested in reading it and thought that I would be good at it – I hope you agree! :-)

Some of the Adventurous Beginnings in life thus far have all occurred fairly recently, if you look at the span of life, thus far.

Just over a year and a half ago, 20 months ago to be exact, I got married to the most wonderful man in the whole world, my husband “Mr. T” Than less than a year later God blessed us with an adorable boy,  “Little Might” who believe it or not is already a year old, and is no longer my baby but my toddler.

I feel that now is the perfect time to start this latest endeavor in life, my blog. In true blog style I am going to start it off with a GIVEAWAY! If you sign-up to follow Adventurous Beginnings than you will be entered into a drawing to receive 1 $10 gift card for Target. That's right 1 $10 gift card for Target, simply for following my new blog. The drawing will take place one week from today, Wednesday, June 15th.

I hope you will check back often to see what New Adventurous and New Beginnings God brings me and my family.

Blessings,

Joy