Worn

I'm not usually a huge fan of Tenth Avenue North (for those of you who do not know, they are a Christian band).
I know, I should be shot.  I think I tend to favor female voices over male, so it's nothing personal.
But, I heard their song Worn on the radio yesterday.

I had a really long post written and hated it.
After talking with a dear friend who has empty arms during the holidays, too, I realized I just don't want to do Christmas this year.  I don't want the magic, or the warmth, or carols.  I am worn.  We are worn.
I just want Emmanuel, God with us, the Birth of Christ.
I want time with my Savior, away from all of the red and green and silver and gold.
I want life and redemption.
I wish I could say life as a Christian was always grounded.  I wish I had faith to move mountains and praise poured from me all day long.  Realistically, for me, sometimes prayers run thin and you feel like you are grasping onto air.  Redemption will come, I know this well, but we are tired.

I thought this song was worth a share.

Worn by Tenth Avenue North

Newb December Recipe

I am going to try something new and post 3 recipes at the beginning of every month that I want us to try.  At the end of the month, I will let you know how they went.  I will include links and recipes where I can so you can try them, too!

Here are the recipes we want to try for December.  They are in no way shape or form holiday recipes.  Just good lookin' food! 

• Cajun Chicken Stuffed with Pepper Jack Cheese and Spinach

From DayDream Kitchen

I made spinach lasagna to indulge my once-a-year Italian craving and both of us loved it.. we'll try spinach again!

• Some sort of new vegetable dish.

We are so bad about this.  We eat green beans or broccoli or broccoli cauliflower mix.  Frozen.  Every night.  Sometimes salad.  We need some new digs.

Ideas:

Spicy Broccoli with Garlic?

Cheesy Cauliflower Tots from I Breathe I'm Hungry

I think I will cut the fat down.. letyaknow how that goes

Mexican Corn Cakes

I don't consider corn or potatoes vegetables, but these look yum!

• Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa and Greek Yogurt Avocado Puree

From Baking With Blondie.

Daniel is on strike with Quinoa (like, think a toddler not wanting to eat his carrots.  With quinoa), but we're going to try it.  Maybe brown rice instead.

Any good recipes out there?

Cheap Christmas Cards

It is officially Christmas card season.  We like to send one out every year and I always like to include a little picture.  I know no one probably cares to have a mug of my face on their fridge, but I like to see our pictures evolve over time in our marriage.  The first few totally sucked.  I like to have nice pictures in our cards, so one year I put my name into a drawing for one of those mall photog places for a free session and-woohoo-actually won.
Meh, turned out okay.  Not a huge fan of those places, but I guess it came out better than my Kodak.

We invested in a DSLR last Thanksgiving to take nice pictures of our babies (uuhhh, still waiting on that one, Lord) and were able to bribe my sister-in-law into being our photographer this year (we lost our tripod last week.  Bah!).  In case you are thinking of buying a nice camera, it's been one of the best investments we have ever made- just be ready to invest in additional lenses (and a copy of Photoshop!) if you want great photos.

Anyway, I looked on Shutterfly to order cards and they are SO expensive!  We need about 30 (sorry- we are only sending them to family and super close friends), and they wanted almost $2 per card!  Nope.

Checked out Vista Print- awesome.  We got 30 cards for $25.  They have some pretty cute options if anyone is looking.  Shipping was $5 and they claim the cards should come by December 15, which is plenty of time for turn around.  You can pay more for faster shipping.  However, I have ordered from them before and chose the cheaper, slower shipping and had them by the end of the same week.  Order now if you can and choose the "slow" shipping!

Front:

Back:

Happy Holidays from us!

(And Yes, we totally took this with our own camera for freeeeeee.  Love)