Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert

I am enjoying my Blogging for Books opportunity of free books for the exchange of writing reviews. 

I picked up Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert because I really enjoyed her other book, Wildflowers from Winter. Ganshert is from the Midwest and I love that the book setting takes place in Iowa. 

This book was about Robin Price, a single mom and widow. Robin, during her early days of grieving the loss of her husband, built a cafe in her small town, Peaks, called the The Willow Tree, which helped her to deal with her loss. She is a proud owner and also sees her cafe as a place to minister to others in the community. Then a developer, Ian McKay, shows up in her small town and has plans to build condos. This condo plan happens to be exactly in the place where her cafe is located. Both Robin and Ian are stubborn and much of the book is focused on their battle of figuring out which option is best for the town of Peaks. At the same time, they begin to battle with their feelings toward each other.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down and read it within a few days. It was a simple story line but one I enjoyed- especially since I had already read Wildflowers from Winter and there were some of the same characters. Overall, it was a great book. I hope to see more Katie Ganshert novels coming out!

easter

I love celebrating Easter with my kiddos. Although we try to share the Good News year round, I feel like Easter is a great time to really focus and understand what our faith is all about.

The Resurrection Rolls we started doing with Addelyn a few years ago and this year, Jace was able to join in making them (he may or may not have eaten a lot of marshmallows in the process). Addelyn worked hard to make most of the rolls for our family. 

How to make Resurrection Rolls-  Get crescent rolls, sugar, cinnamon, melted butter, and marshmallows. The marshmallow represents Jesus. You dip him in butter to represent the oils they used on his body after he died, roll him in the sugar mixture to represent the spices used on his body, and wrap the crescent roll around the marshmallow to represent the tomb. After you close the tombs up, put them in the oven for "3 days" and see how Jesus is gone from the tomb when you eat it! He has risen!!!

I learned the hard way- to be sure to close those tombs up well! Last year, Jesus did not leave the tomb. Try having that teachable moment! 

Making our rolls...

While they were baking, the kiddos opened their Easter baskets. 

Jesus has risen! The tomb is empty this year, woohoo!

The crazy part is- even Jace ate the resurrection rolls. He doesn't eat much so this was a big surprise for us. Maybe because he saw a marshmallow go inside of each one? He has Risen indeed!!

college ladies

Every once in awhile (okay, not often enough at all) I get together with these beautiful ladies. We were all college roommates and they are women that will always hold a special place in my life, each one in their own unique way. 

This get together involved children and lots of tasty snacks that we munched on throughout the day while we caught up on life. I don't think this kind of get together has happened for a long time, especially since there have been many children added in the past few years!

Little Lawson, cutie pie!

We kept having them say "College" instead of "Cheese!"

Jace and two of the Kacer's boys. Love them!

Addelyn is only a bit obsessed with this little Miss.

Surprisingly, this many kids together all day and there were no big issues and we even got to actually have some real conversations (the moms). Addelyn being the only girl (except baby Jules) struggled at first as the boys wrestled, played with guns and swords, and were pirates capturing each other- and Addelyn (the only GIRRLLLLL) was the enemy. Finally, we helped the boys and Addelyn "discover" the idea that she could be the pirates mom (which satisfied her "play house" option) and then the boys wouldn't stab her or capture her. It was great! From that point on, they had a great, fun day together!

I love my ladies (and their beautiful kiddos!) Cheers to girls weekend in May and to the fact that even our lovely Christina gets to join too!! 

memories

Sometimes there are moments I really don't want to forget! Here are a few of the latest.....

*Jace loves books! Sometimes it will get quiet and I'll get nervous about what he is up to. I'll peak into a room and he'll be sitting looking at books. How sweet. Playing with tractors is usually the other option- or standing on the counter, pouring out drinks- or playing in the toilet. Not always so sweet but we'll focus on the good stuff on the blog, right?

*The kiddos are sharing a room now. We had a few rough nights but overall, it is going really well. Addelyn was coming in our room every night for the last few months and no one was sleeping well! Now, other than one night in the last few weeks- she has stayed in her own room, all night. It is a new routine for bed and in the morning but it is good. I love that it will help to grow their relationship too.

*The best moment, putting the kids to bed the other night- I was rocking Jace and Addelyn was laying in her bed. They were both giggly but I was trying to calm everyone down. Jace is quite the clown and that is a story in itself- when we rock him- he is always trying to get us to laugh. He'll put his face right up next to yours and stare at you with his grin until you respond or stick his nose in your eyeball. Finally, the giggles stopped and the room was quiet. Jace had his little head on my shoulder. Out of the blue, in the silence, Jace sings, "Gangnam style...."

*Jace doesn't call Addelyn by her name- he calls her "Seester." He loves her so much.

*On the way to preschool a lot of mornings, we'll spontaneously pray for the day- for people- etc. I'm trying to naturally pray throughout the day with my kids, outloud- when the moments come up. The other day, I got a station all ready at our table to read about the Easter story and then color Easter eggs. Addelyn got so excited when she walked into the room and saw everything set out. We sat down and before we started- she exclaimed, "Thank you, Mom, for setting this up! Thank you God, for letting me do fun stuff with my Mom!" I love that she is learning that you can talk to God anytime, anywhere!

advocare journey

I am a little nervous to tell people about my Advocare journey because I'm more private about certain things. However, I'm learning that there are some things that are worth sharing, especially when they have been a great thing in your life.

A little over a year ago, I felt like I was in a black hole of tiredness. Jacers was going on month eight of not sleeping through the night. With Addelyn, she started sleeping through the night at four months but this boy wanted to party all night and hang with his Momma. For those who know me, I have narcolepsy and usually take Ritalin but can't when I'm nursing. So I was struggling! I could hardly get through my days. Some of you may remember, those were the days when I often started crying daily, almost quit my job daily, and I'm guessing I wasn't really fun to be around! Sleep matters! A really good friend of mine suggested I try Spark, a "healthy" energy drink (not like all of the latest ones on the market). I was skeptical but since I trust her, I tried it out. (After secretly going on Mayo Clinic's website and looking up every ingredient first.) After a few days of Spark, I honestly felt like a different person. It wasn't like a had a quick burst of energy but more that I felt like I could focus more and even stay awake much better.

After using Spark for months, I decided to try a 24 Day Challenge. I would say I've considered myself a pretty healthy person (one that likes to eat junk food at times of course!) but overall, a goal of eating healthy 90% of the time. During my first 24 Day Challenge, I noticed a lot of my eating habits that weren't very healthy. My sugar addiction. My Diet Pepsi addiction. Although I already ate a lot of fruit and veggies, I wasn't very aware of how much wheat and dairy (too much!) I was eating. I also didn't realize how little protein I was consuming each day. So as you can see, I had a ton of learnings. Plus, it helped me to lose some of that stubborn baby weight that didn't want to come off after baby number two- around 15 pounds of it. I'm still on the journey to a healthy eating lifestyle- I probably ALWAYS will be on this journey but this has given me some framework to help with my eating habits.

Around seven months ago, I became an Advocare Distributor- mostly for the discount it offers when buying the products. I even have my own little website, https://www.advocare.com/120835572, because along the way, it has been fun to help some others on this journey too. One friend of mine (I'll let her share when she is ready- has lost more than thirty pounds and is still going strong!) It has been amazing to watch! It has been fun also to get to know some really great people through the Advocare team. So that is my journey so far! I haven't told tons of people unless it naturally comes up. The main reason I share it- I had someone get frustrated with me the other day because they didn't understand why I hadn't even told them about this journey. I would say my main deal is that I never want to come off as a salesperson. I love to share it with others- if you want to hear more about it:) Otherwise, that is my story, to be continued I'm sure!!!

last day of the trip

Last San Francisco blog post.....Wednesday morning was beautiful. We slept in again (8 am!) and packed up and headed for the Bart (which is kind of like a subway). We were switching hotels so our last night could be right next to the airport (we would be flying back to Iowa at 6 am the next morning). So we decided to get our luggage dropped off and get situated so we could have the whole day to explore. After checking in to our airport hotel, we headed back to the city. We first went to the Civic Center/United Nations Plaza area- there was a farmers market going on. I absolutely love this atmosphere. Lots of unique people and lots of tasty samples. From there, my sweet husband headed back to the Tenderloin with me so I could have authentic Indian food for lunch (I'm kind of obsessed.) He actually enjoyed it- although he'll barely admit it. 

We did some more stopping in random shops and various exploring of San Francisco and then we headed to North Beach to meet up with Jen and Markus for coffee one last time. We met some of the people they are ministering to and had a Dirty Chai (this is a tasty little concoction) as we chatted. Then Markus walked us to the Bart station so we could head to Mark's choice activity of the vacation- the Golden State Warriors game in Oakland. 

The area around the Arena was a bit shady but it was fun to head into the game. Neither of us have ever been to a NBA game so that was fun. Plus, the Golden State Warriors won! Mark found some good tickets for us so our seats were great. Nice job honey (pays to work at a ticket company huh?)

So funny- the lady in front of us kept passing out. We got quite a kick out of it. So this is what it looks like when I narc out huh? 

Well, San Francisco.....we had fun! Vacations like this don't happen often and I am guessing as the kids get older, it will happen even less as we'll want to vacation with them too. We were so blessed to have this time together. We are so thankful for our families for helping make it happen (tickets, babysitting our kiddos, etc!) One thing I came away from our trip, being strongly reminded of- time away with my husband and no kids is EXTREMELY important for our marriage! Those of you married peeps- remember this! I'm not talking about needing to go to San Francisco or anywhere special- just making time to date. In the stage of little kids, it is so hard to make this a priority. Sometimes it doesn't seem worth the work it takes to make it happen (the work on either side of it, let alone being away!) But I realize how important it is that Mark and I will be able to still have fun together- someday when the babies are grown and they leave us to ourselves again! So we WILL continue to make this a priority. Fun times. Glad we went!

a relaxing day

San Francisco posts....continued.....Tuesday of our trip, we woke up to rain, rain, and more rain. We had checked into our hotel on Monday in the Financial District- although it was great staying with our friends- we needed some time for our marriage- just the two of us! So we slept in a bit (remember it is two hours difference so sleeping til 8 felt like 10) and got up and ready to go. We walked to Market Street, the shopping area- and got soaked (we even stopped for umbrellas)! We decided to hit the mall, just to dry off for awhile. We explored for a bit in the mall and then we headed to the Youth with a Mission base- this is where I did my Discipleship Training School during college and also led a high school mission trip to for a number of years. It is in the heart of the Tenderloin, which is known as the not great area of San Francisco. Lots of homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse. In a weird sort of way, I love this area. Not because of the pain but because of the redemption that is happening. I was really excited for Mark to finally see the place that has impacted my life so much. We walked to the base and met up with Jen. She gave us an updated tour (it has been since before Jace was born that I was there last.) There are great things happening at YWAM San Francisco. It was encouraging to hear the stories and even see some of what is going on there. Then, we got to take Ben Bonwell out for lunch. He is a college aged guy from Cedar Falls that is doing his DTS right now. It was fun to chat with him and hear how God is at work in his life. We got to go to a small, authentic tacoria which was amazing. The 'mom and pop' authentic restaurants from every where in the world is one of my favorite things about San Francisco. You can eat food from anywhere and everywhere! After lunch with Ben, it was still a little rainy so we decided to head to a movie. We never get to go to movies- it was so fun and relaxing for us. After the movie, we had found massages on Groupon so we headed to those. They were amazing and the perfect way to top off our "relax" day as I like to call it. After stopping in some of the Union Square shopping areas on the way back, we headed to the hotel and showered and got ready for a dinner date out. 

We headed to North Beach to a wonderful little authentic Italian restaurant suggested by Markus and Jen. It was amazing and we were stuffed, as you can see from Mark's face. The walk back to the hotel actually felt great. I love how much walking we did- it was never boring walking- good talks with my hubby and always the city sites to see.