Prayer & inspiration

My Lord God

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following

your will does not mean

that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that my desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire

in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything

apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this

you will lead me by the right road

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always

though I may seem to be lost

and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear,

for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me

to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Top 5: Life in general

The top 5 things going on with Ryan & Sarah:

1. We are expecting!!! A baby is on the way, coming April 23, 2012. It's still so surreal that there's a little life growing inside of me, almost fully formed yet still only the size of an avocado & no belly quite yet. Going strong in the 2nd trimester now, and by the end of November we'll find out if it's a girl or a boy. Ryan & I are really excited!

our little bugaboo at 13.5 weeks, now I'm about 16 weeks.

2. Disneyland Trip - probably the last trip we'll go on in quite a while. Back in September we stayed at the Disneyland hotel for a night & and saw the sights. It was a little sad that since I was pregnant I couldn't go on a lot of the fun rides, but I still enjoyed seeing the new things. There's a lot construction under way, so by the end 2012 it's going to be fantastic, especially at CA Adventure with a new Cars Land (my nephews will love that!) & the main entrance will be reminiscent of 1923 Los Angeles, the year Walt moved to CA to start his cartoon studio.

The Wonderful world of Color show, really good!

3. i Phone - It was time for my Verizon upgrade so I finally made the transition to my very first 'smart phone' and boy is it smart. It'll probably turn into a time waster for me, but so far it's been great & I've found some very useful apps (more about those later). I think it'll be great for photos & video of the future bugaboo. And 'Siri', the personal computer assistant that talks to you and actually gets the gist of almost any command or question is pretty cool too.

4. New job for Ryan - after much searching over the summer, Ryan found his almost dream job, it's definitely a step in the right direction for him. He works now at UCSB as the publications layout coordinator for the student newspaper, putting his graphic design skills to use. He gets to work with college students as sort of an advisor & also have his first 'desk job.' Being in front of a computer 8 hours a day isn't all it's cracked up to be, but he's enjoying it, there's great staff & it's a less stressful work environment. 

5.  New photoshoots - Ryan & I have had a chance to do some photo shoots & meet some new clients with our photography business. It's still very much a side business, but we love it. One really fun thing we did was shoot our buddy Logan's 1 year birthday party, we set up a fun photo booth with props & everything. We'll be updating our website soon. www.splusr.com

Aprons & Peanuts

At the end of May I had the opportunity to join the Etsy SB team at a little crafting event held at Peanuts, a really cute kids boutique/consignment store on Figueroa street in downtown Santa Barbara.

So the weeks before that event, I gave myself a deadline to make at least 10 new kids aprons. It was a good test for me of how many aprons I could complete on a deadline. There were many late nights sitting at my sewing machine, but I reached my quota just in time for the event!

Unfortunately the streets were closed off for a race and it rained all day! ..So sales were slow to say the least... but I met some really great local crafters that are also selling their handmade items on Etsy.com.

On the bright side, at least my display looked great! And my hubby was there for moral support.
If there were more people there, I'm sure they would have taken advantage of the free S+R children's photo shoot I was throwing in if you bought some aprons.

S + R Teaser | Rachel, Andreas & Shalom

We were able to do a great shoot with Rachel, Andreas, and their adorable 7 month old daughter Shalom at their home a few weeks ago...they even had family visiting from Germany. Shalom was definitely working it for the camera, giving us some cute photos. Thank you guys for letting us into your home & sharing your family with us!

 

Menu Planning

Another thing Ryan & I have been trying to do more of is 'menu planning.' There are a ton of resources out there that show you how to create a 'home management binder' and you can download free pdf printouts to guide you with your grocery shopping & weekly menu planning.

I really like getting the tips from a blog I follow, written by Tsh Oxenreider, called Simple Mom. She also wrote a great book I love called Organized Simplicity: The Clutter Free Approach to Intentional Living.

 

For myself & others that are not moms yet, all the stuff you find here is useful even if you don't have kids, just being a wife requires some resources to keep yourself organized & sane :)

Here is a great article on menu planning, in it she actually talks about using her Google calendar to help keep track of her menus for the week...I never would have thought to do that, it's such a good idea.

http://simplemom.net/how-to-menu-plan/

And there are some really cute grocery & menu planning pdfs out there you can download for free:

easy grocery check off list (reusable if you print & laminate this & use a wax pencil)

http://simplemom.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grocery-list.pdf 

graphic design meal planning menu

http://theprojectgirl.com/downloads/theprojectgirl.com-mealplanner.pdf 

monthly menu
http://www.vertex42.com/Files/monthly-menu-planner.pdf

my personal favorite, weekly menu & shopping list in one, also a ton of other pdfs for home mgmt binder
http://organizedhome.com/printable/household-notebook/weekly-menu-planner-shopping-list

Local Harvest Delivery

In an effort to be healthier, we thought it'd be good to add some more fruits and veggies to our diet. My sister & brother in law recommended this great company, Local Harvest Delivery, that brings local produce straight to your door. You pay a weekly fee for them to deliver a box of fresh, locally grown & in season fruits & veggies. And you can go online every week to add to your box additional fruits, veggies, organic meats, eggs, and honey...all from local farmers.

Their motto is that "They are proud to offer life-changing services that will result in healthier people, a healthier environment, and a stronger local economy and community."

This Saturday will be our first delivery, we thought we'd try out the small $25 box every other week to see how it goes. At least 1/4 of our grocery bill is fruits & vegetables anyway, so why not get something that's locally grown, so you know where the food comes from. My sister did say they had to be a little creative sometimes with cooking some of the vegetables they received, especially during the winter months. But I look forward to a little challenge to our day to day cooking, maybe it will encourage me (especially me) to take some more risk with my vegetables of choice :)