Jan272012

Potato salad, sweet potato & lentil soup, pasta salad

By jamieivey on January 27, 2012

Recently I’ve made a few things that we have LOVED and I want to share them with you!  I love finding vegan recipes that I can add to our recipe files that we all love.  We are not vegans, and quite frankly I wouldn’t call us vegetarians either!  What I would say is that we eat mostly like vegetarians, and love to try stuff that is vegan!  The other day Aaron and I went to a restaurant that is all vegan and it was quite lovely!

 

Here are my newest recipes to try out:

Sweet Potato & Lentil soup – I’ve done in the crock pot for 3 hours on high, and I’ve also done on the stove, boiling for about an hour.  Either way works great!

Ingredients:

3 cups of lentils (either canned or soaked overnight) — 3 cubes of cubed sweet potatoes — 4 cups of stock (i use veggie of course) & I’ve also needed to add more water sometimes — 1/2 cup diced onion — 1/2 cup diced celery — 1/2 cup diced carrots — 3 tbsp agave — 3 tbsp orange juice – 2 tsp parsley — oil, salt, pepper and I add chipolte spice to mine.

First, sweat the onion, celery, & carrots in a pan on high heat, with a little oil (i use canola).  Let it simmer until the onions are clear.  When they are done, add the sweet potatoes and a splash of the stock, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the mixture, and all the other ingredients to your crock pot or pot on the stove.  For crock pot, cook on high for about 3 hours until potatoes are tender.

 

My kids devour this and Aaron claims it as his favorite soup I make.  I do believe this is vegan too!!  Very healthy and the sweetness of the orange juice and agave make it great for kids to enjoy if you think they won’t like it – they will, I promise!  This recipe makes barely enough for us.  There is nothing left, so I need to double it now.

 

I also made carrot soup this week and it was again a favorite!  Amos could not get enough of this soup!  It is so good for you, and I think your kids will really like it!  Add chips, or cheese and it’s a fun soup for your kids!

 

I have also started making a pasta salad that Aaron loves and claims that it’s his favorite pasta salad ever.  Isn’t he being so nice lately with claiming everything I make is THE BEST and HIS FAVORITE EVER!  He’s been known to exaggerate his happiness of something, but it clearly makes me happy to hear it from him!

 

Broccoli, Grape & Pasta Salad from Southern Living (Sept 2011)

1 cup chopped pecans — 1/2 (16-oz.) package farfalle (bow-tie) pasta — 1 pound fresh broccoli  — 1 cup mayonnaise  — 1/3 cup sugar — 1/3 cup diced red onion  — 1/3 cup red wine vinegar  — 1 teaspoon salt  — 2 cups seedless red grapes, halved  — 8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled

  1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.
  2. 2. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
  3. 3. Meanwhile, cut broccoli florets from stems, and separate florets into small pieces using tip of a paring knife. Peel away tough outer layer of stems, and finely chop stems.
  4. 4. Whisk together mayonnaise and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; add broccoli, hot cooked pasta, and grapes, and stir to coat. Cover and chill 3 hours. Stir bacon and pecans into salad just before serving.

(photo from Southern Living website)

This is such a good salad and here’s what I change.  I use veganaise, and not real bacon.  I also used gluten-free pasta when my mom was in town and it was perfectly wonderful as well!  This is a fun pasta salad and looks pretty as well!

 

Certainly last but not least I recently made a GOLDEN POTATO SALAD from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook.  This cookbook is one of my favorite cookbooks to use and I feel that it has a great variety of foods and you can even see options for dairy free and vegan.

 

GOLDEN POTATO SALAD

– 1 large sweet potato — 4 medium Yukon gold potatoes — 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed — 1 medium bell pepper, cut into narrow strips — 2 scallions, thinly sliced

dressing:  — 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used veganaise) — 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt or soy yogurt — 2 tsp yellow mustard — juice of 1/2 lemon or lime

1.  Bake or microwave the potatoes in their skins until done but still firm.  Allow 2 to 3 minutes per potato, test for doneness, then add a little time as needed.  Let them cool to room temperature.  Slip their skins off and cut into 1/2 – 3/4 inch chunks and place in serving container w/ the peas, bell pepper and scallions.

2.  Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and stir together.  Stir into the potato mixture.

3.  Season with s&p and enjoy!!  I added garlic salt and onion powder.

 

We all loved this and it’s a great side to a meal.

 

What new meal have you tried lately that you love?  Share the recipe with us, because we love to try new stuff!

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Jan252012

Adoption can change a grandma’s heart.

By jamieivey on January 25, 2012

This is a picture of my Mimi with her son, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.  Looking at this picture brings a smile to my face because I see my grandmother surrounded by her offspring and 3 of them are black.  I’m guessing she would have never thought as a young woman growing up that she would have a son that would grow up and then he would have a daughter and she would grow up and adopt babies that were black.  Never in her wildest dreams!

I remember when I told her that we were adopting a child.  Her reaction was probably quite common for a woman of her age.  She was very concerned.  She told me that she knew a woman, whose daughter had adopted a baby that was black and that baby was addicted to drugs when he was born.  Of course she thought all babies that were adopted and were black would be born addicted to drugs.  She then went on to tell how bad that child was now and it was probably because he was adopted.  Y’all I’m serious she told me this whole story.  I just smiled through the phone and thanked her for her concern.  I mean what else can you say to your 75 year old grandma that probably has never met anyone that has adopted in her entire life and has no idea why I would ever want to do that.

Fast forward to Deacon’s birth and we get one of the funniest comments I’ve ever heard from my grandma.  My dad called her to tell her the exciting news that Deacon was born and she says to him on the phone … ya’ll I can’t make this up … get ready …. she asked my dad …. “is he still black?”.  Yes she asked that.  As if she was holding on hope that there was a big mix up and surely she wasn’t going to have a black great-grandchild.  I’m sure she prayed for months that God would not bring a black great-grandchild into her life!

Fast forward 6 years and my Mimi is in love with my children.  She loves them all so much and doesn’t seem to care if any of them have darker skin than her.  This Christmas she was at my house and I can’t explain to you how much she loved on my sweet baby girl Story.  They connected and Story wanted to sit by Mimi all the time and she even asked Mimi if she could come stay with her at her house for 5 weeks next summer!  When I talk to my Mimi on the phone she still talks about Story wanting to come stay with her.  It does my heart good to know that my Mimi went from not understanding adoption, and worried about a black baby to genuinely loving my babies who joined our family through adoption!

I hear stories all the time about people hesitant about adopting a child of a different race because of their grandparents and how they would view this child.  My heart breaks at hearing that.  I tell everyone the exact same thing …. this is YOUR kid and not theirs.  You must follow what God asks of YOU and not what your grandparents want of you.  You are accountable to God for YOUR actions and not for THEIRS.  I’m beyond grateful that my Mimi got to see my family grow in ways that she could have never imagined.  I believe that each generation has the ability to change the one in front of them, and that’s exactly what my kids are doing for their Mimi.  I’m betting that she thinks differently about adoption now!

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Jan232012

Transformers helps Amos feel connected.

By jamieivey on January 23, 2012

About half way through last semester Amos started wanting a new backpack and complaining about the one that he had.  I told him that he didn’t need a new backpack because his wasn’t even a year old and it was in perfect condition.  That’s what we do here at the Ivey house, we wear it/use it until it doesn’t work anymore.  Frugal people.  There are four children here.

 

After a few more complaints I finally asked him why he wanted a new backpack.  It was bothering me how much he was bringing it up.  I was thinking he was ungrateful or didn’t clearly understand that his backpack worked perfectly fine.  Cayden has had his backpack since before kindergarten and he’s in second grade.  Works fine, so we’re still using it.  That’s how I roll.

 

He told me he wanted a backpack with someone on it.  I was confused, so I asked more questions.    He told me all the kids had Spider Man, or Bumblebee, or Transformers ….. SOMEONE on their backpack and his was plain grey with NO ONE on it.

 

OH … he wanted what all his friends had.

 

So, then my speech changed from we have something that’s perfectly good, to the speech about not wanting what others had.  You know the one.  We need to be grateful for what we have … blah blah blah blah.  You’ve given it, you know you have.

 

Fast forward a few weeks, and he is still talking about it.  In fact some days he’s quite sad about it.  I stuck to my guns.  Your backpack works fine.  It’s new.  It’s in great shape.  Who cares what others have.  It doesn’t matter.

 

A few days before Christmas I was searching for the perfect gift for Amos and literally all I could think about was him talking about wanting SOMEONE on his backpack.  As much as I tried to tell him it didn’t matter if his was different, to him it did matter.

 

Being different REALLY matters to Amos.  We have seen this play out at other times in his life,  but more than any other kid in our family, it matters to him.  Amos wants to be accepted.  Amos wants to be “normal”.  He wants to be like everyone else.  I admit that I struggle with this sometimes too, but for Amos it’s more than just normal issues of wanting to be accepted.  He truly desires to be included.  Not to be left out or forgotten.  In his eyes his backpack set him apart from the other kids in his class.  He was the different one.

 

You see, I’m convinced that the four and a half years he lived as an orphan changed him.  There is a huge void in his heart and the longings to be wanted, accepted and a part of something are constantly nagging at him.  Even having a backpack that’s different is really hard for him.  Plain grey just doesn’t make him like the other kids.  In his sweet little six year old mind only Transformers can connect him to his friends.

 

Aaron and I can love him and accept him and nurture him all day long, and that hole is still there.  It’s big.  Some days it seems much bigger than other days.  I am 100% convinced that there is only one person that can truly fill this hole in Amos’ heart, and that is Jesus.  I am confident that Jesus can do it, and I’m praying heavily that he will do it sooner than later.  When Amos sees the love that his FATHER in heaven has for him, this hole can be filled.  When Amos sees the acceptance that we have from God and the family that we belong to with him, this hole can be filled.

 

Jesus loves Amos dearly and desires the best for him.  My prayer is that not only will Amos see this one day, but that Aaron and I will remember daily that our God designed Amos perfectly and put him in our family for a reason and that he has great big plans for our sweet boy.  God is way bigger than any hole in my sons heart.  He is way bigger than abandonment and feelings of not belonging.  We have a big, big, big God that will not leave us where we are.

 

So, as I was walking around looking for that perfect gift for Amos I ran across a backpack at Wal Mart that was $10 and will for sure fall apart in about 6 months, but it had Transformers on it and I just knew that Amos would freak if I got it for him.  On Christmas morning, this was the one gift I was looking forward to being opened.  I couldn’t wait for Amos to see his new backpack with Transformers on it.  I didn’t care one bit that his old backpack was in perfect condition, my son wanted Transformers to feel more accepted and so that’s what his momma and daddy got him!

 

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Jan222012

Cayden’s 8th birthday party.

By jamieivey on January 22, 2012

Last week my big boy turned eight and we had a party in our backyard.  We had told Cayden he could have a party at home or he could invite 2 friends to go out to eat with him and daddy to celebrate his birthday.  At first he chose the meal and already had his 2 friends picked out, but then he started feeling bad that his friends from school wouldn’t all be invited.  His little heart was sad that they couldn’t celebrate with him, so he went with a back yard party and invited all his friends from school.

 

Aaron and I seriously can’t believe that we have an eight year old!  We are beyond proud of this little man.  He has been saving money for a while and just yesterday bought his own Nintendo DSI and is now consumed with it!  He was so excited with every dollar that he earned or was giving as he had his eye on the prize of his own DSI!

 

Here are all the party goers!  Isn’t it awesome how diverse our neighborhood and school are!  We love it!

 

The pinata was a great hit!!!

Here are three crazy girls!!

Cayden got to choose where he wanted to eat for his birthday meal and of course like a true Ivey he chose Chuy’s!  His main concern was if they were going to sing to him or not.  As soon as we sat down he told the waiter that it was his birthday and asked if they would sing to him!

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Jan202012

tis the season to be giving …. MAAMA CARDS

By jamieivey on January 20, 2012

***UPDATE*** When I originally posted this I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t leave a comment.  The problem has been fixed and so now I am reposting this contest!  Have fun & good luck!

the 13th giveaway of the month!!! MAAMA CARDS

My last giveaway for the month is for my friend Rachel’s new company that she just started.  Her organization MAAMA CARDS is amazing and does so much good in women’s lives through prenatal and postnatal care.  What a joy to be able to promote her cards and spread the word about how this organization is not only making some of the cutest cards I have ever seen, but they are helping women in need.

I’ll let Rachel tell you about them ……

Maama Cards grew out of the desire to support birth mothers in third world countries. While we in the process of adopting our son from Uganda, we had very little information on what kind of background he had come from. I remember just praying that he would feel my prayers of love reaching him, and that he could feel God’s comfort on him as we muddled through paperwork and government clearances. As our journey continued, my heart grew and grew for birth mothers. My heart broke for them as well, knowing that many of them placed their children up for adoption because of extreme poverty and lack of resources. After traveling to Sudan and talking with a pastor’s wife there about birthing conditions and learning that the women simply gave birth on the dirt floor of their home, I became even more convinced that God was putting these women on my heart.


Now that our son is home and in our family, Maama Cards is on its way. I chose greeting cards because for one thing there are no adoption cards out there! What’s up with that?? My first goal was to have a great adoption card, and thanks to Paige Jones and her wonderful artistic skills, we now have one. I also thought if women could buy a Maama Card in place of store-bought card for all of the baby showers and wedding showers ,etc.. that we go to, it would be a great way to honor birth moms and give back to them as well.

We give to the International Medical Corps, for both C-section kits and for pre-natal care of pregnant mothers. Their pre-natal care program will care for mothers through their birth and also provide vaccines for their baby. Our other care point is the Edna Adan Hospital in the horn of Africa, which is a maternity hospital doing some revolutionary care for women. One woman dies every minute due to a pregnancy related complication in the majority world. This is a definite health crisis.

The cards are designed by a combination of artists, all on a volunteer basis. Paige Jones of Parachute Paper has been awesome in drawing some of them, photo-shopping, and printing these, also in overall direction the of card making. Micaelan Davis of Micaelan Davis Photography has also contributed artwork. We have even had a sixth grader contribute some paintings because she wanted to help this cause.

If you want to hear a joke that doesn’t really make sense, play star wars ninjas on the trampoline, or be subjected to playing an endless game of Candyland, then come on over! We have Asher and Simon who are 4 months apart (7 and 6 respectively) and little tiny Adeline who is 3 and small, but can totally hang with her big brothers.

Rachel has graciously given me 3 sets of cards to giveaway to you guys!  I have a “thank you” set that includes 6 thank you cards and I have two sets of random cards that contain ten in each set!  My favorite card is the adoption card that I showed you above with the eggs.  The inside of that card says “Love makes a family.  Congratulations on your adoption.”

 

The first thing you HAVE to do to enter the contest.  The others you can do if you want!

1.  Head over to MAAMA CARDS and browse around.  Leave me a comment with your favorite card.

These next things you can do if you feel like getting an extra entry!  Remember to leave a new comment for each extra thing that you do!

2.  Buy a card!  Leave me a comment telling me what you bought and who it is for!

3.  Visit MAAMA CARDS on facebook, give them a like, and while you are there leave them a comment!

4.  Share this contest on fb, twitter, email, phone, snail mail …..however you can!

Good luck!  Contest ends at Noon (CST) on New Year’s Eve!, midnight (CST) on Sunday the 22nd.

***WINNERS*** Congrats to:

Here are your random numbers:

2	5	1

Timestamp: 2012-01-23 16:56:20 UTC

 

Since, my comment was #1 that’s not fair, so I drew one more number ….

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2012-01-23 16:57:32 UTC

 

Congrats to :  Noelle, Virginia & Kelly

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Jan192012

Morning challenge update #2

By jamieivey on January 19, 2012

Well, here I am 2 weeks into my January challenge of getting up each morning before my kids to get my mind and heart ready to wake them up.  My goal in doing this is to create an environment in our home in the morning before school and church that is not rushed or so crazy that we never connect with each other.  I have been very guilty of waiting until the VERY last moment to get up, and that leads to stress in my home.

 

Monday was my first day in the HELLO MORNINGS challenge that Kat puts on through INSPIRED TO ACTION.  This is a way to stay accountable with a group of women.  I have my group and we check in every morning on facebook.  It’s kinda weird to be talking and saying Hi to women I don’t know each day, but I also find it very comforting to know that we are all in the same boat of trying to rise earlier in the morning to prepare our hearts and minds to be the best moms that we can be!

 

Here’s a few things I’ve noticed ….

  • I am truly enjoying starting my day in the Word.  This may not be where I study and dig, but I’m reading it and find myself thinking on what I read throughout the day.  Love setting my mind on things above first thing in the morning.
  • I still hate it.  I still cringe when my alarm goes off, and have yet to not snooze at least twice before getting out of bed.
  • I overslept on Monday (school holiday), and begged my children to stay in their rooms for 20 more minutes so I could read and pray.  They obliged and I was pleased.  I realized then, that I do like this alone time first thing in the morning.
  • Our mornings are so different.  In fact one day after I took the boys to school I come home and Aaron asked what was going on this morning.  He had heard me reading a book to them before school and thought it was crazy.  He said it was TOO CALM in the living room.
  • This is really helping Amos.  He’s the one that struggles so much with chaos, and I find myself living in chaos sometimes, so this is good for him.

I’m two weeks in and as much as I hate it each morning at 6am, I am seeing the fruit and benefits of it and that makes me happy.  Anyone else out there trying this?  How’s it going?

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Jan182012

SEVEN: clothes

By jamieivey on January 18, 2012

I recently started reading Jen Hatmaker’s newest book, SEVEN, and as usual she is keeping my interest greatly and causing me to think inwardly about my own life while reading about hers.  The premise of this book is that for seven months she identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against greed, materialism, and overindulgence. Needless to say it’s an interesting read because she had to do crazy stuff like eat only seven foods for a month.  Can you even imagine?  Sounds crazy to me.  Or she only wore seven pieces of clothing for a month.  The same ones over and over again, which call me crazy but that sounds like a dream to me.  I would wear my favorite comfy jeans, tennis shoes, a t shirt and a fleece jacket.  I could do that.  Aaron would argue that I do that anyways, but whatever.

 

As I was reading the part about the seven items of clothing I was greatly challenged by something.  As much as I hate to spend money on myself, I do care greatly about what others think of me.  I really have to struggle to buy a shirt that’s not marked down 800% at Target.  Seriously, I guess it’s a good problem, but sometimes I just wish I could spend the $21 and not stress over it.  But anyhow … I have a hard time spending money on myself, but then I have no problem buying a new “outfit” every time I go on vacation, go to a wedding, go to a Christmas party, or ___________________.  Just fill in the blank.  If it’s a special occasion I find it merits a new outfit.  A head to toe new outfit.  That’s not $21 at Target my friends, that’s some cash.  But I justify it.  I am so concerned about how people see me, that I justify and justify and justify.  I can’t wear that one dress that I bought last week, because the same people will be at this Christmas party that were at that one.  Therefore I need a new dress, because heaven forbid they see me in the same cute brown and black striped dress as I had on last week.

What happens in this cycle is that I have a closet full of perfectly good clothes that I can’t wear to someones wedding because I wore them 2 months ago to another friends wedding.  Some of you are reading this and you are yelling at me, “who the heck cares what you look like”, and I appreciate your yelling, but sometimes I care.  I don’t want to care, but I do care.
In the book where she was talking about wearing the same seven pieces of clothing for seven days she says this:

There is something noble about an assembly of believers in simple clothes, where the lobby isn’t filled with people saying “you look pretty” to each other.  Maybe looking pretty isn’t the catalyst for the Spirit’s movement.  Perhaps an obsessive occupation with dresses and hair and shoes detracts us from the point of the gathering:  a fixation on Jesus.  When the jars of clay remember they are jars of clay, the treasure within gets all the glory, which seems somehow more fitting.

 

Oh friends I want to remember that.  I want to obsess not on what I’m wearing, or that I don’t have as cute of clothes as __________, but I want to obsess on Jesus.  It’s not about me, but it is about him.  Please let me remember that as I enter my closet next time before an event.  It’s okay if I wear the dress again, and people probably aren’t looking at me as much as I think they are anyways!

 

If you are looking for a great new read that will give you a good swift kick in the pants, then SEVEN is a book I recommend you get yourself now. It’s $8 on Amazon right now.  You can’t beat that!  I’m sure I’ll be kicked in the pants a few more times while reading this!

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Jan172012

Interview with kids

By jamieivey on January 17, 2012

As you saw last week I can now make videos on my phone.  Let me just say this could be dangerous.  I am absolutely certain I will turn into one of those people that thinks she needs to video everything.  Dangerous people.

 

Anyhow last week I decided to interview all the kids while we were playing outside and Aaron was cooking dinner.  Here we go …

 

And then they turned the camera on me …

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Jan162012

Happy 8th Birthday Cayden

By jamieivey on January 16, 2012

Today my oldest baby boy turns EIGHT and to say that I can’t believe it is an understatement.  How did he turn eight?  I remember driving to the hospital to birth him and although some days that feels like ages ago, at the same time it feels like just yesterday.

 

Not sure if I’ve ever shared this, but at the time we got pregnant with Cayden we viewed him as an accident.  We weren’t planning a baby and so in our mind he was our little accident.  In that moment he felt like an accident, although now I know that there are no accidents.  God was always in this and he planned a long time ago that Cayden would be conceived at a time when I thought wasn’t the best, but he knew was the best.

 

Isn’t it funny how sometimes we are thrown off by what life brings and can’t comprehend it, but you get a few years out and you realize that sure enough that whole “God’s perfect timing” thing sure is right.  Had we not had Cayden at that time, we wouldn’t have been ready to adopt Deacon, and we wouldn’t have been ready for Amos or Story either.  God’s perfect plan was laid out despite what we thought was a perfect plan.

 

Anyhow … we had just moved to TN for Aaron to pursue music full time and I was gonna support our cute little family of just the two of us and our dog, Max.  Life was easy and simple and we had a plan.  I would teach school for three years while Aaron worked at music, then we would re-evaluate and hopefully I would be able to quit and we could start our cute little family.

 

I found a job and began my role as sole-provider only to find out 2 months after we moved that I was pregnant and everything changed.  Of course Aaron was out of town when I took the pregnancy test.  Why I couldn’t wait until later that night, I’ll never know, but there I was alone in our apartment finding out I was pregnant.  This next part of the story brings me guilt on so many levels, but in that moment I was devastated.  I had no idea why this was happening now, or how we would make it.  I called Aaron and sure enough he was driving through Arkansas and had no cell service, so I called my mom and cried and cried.  She suggested I go take another test, so I drove to the grocery store and bought two tests with tears streaming down my face.  The checkout lady congratulated me and I remember vaguely smiling and thinking “this is not the plan”.  Took the tests and sure enough it was confirmed three times.  Pregnant.

 

I finally got a hold of Aaron and we had one of the most awkward conversations we’ve ever had.  He was driving our motor home back to TN with his parents when I called.

Me:  Hey, I have some bad news.

Aaron:  What?  You okay.

Me:  No, I’m pregnant.

Aaron:  What?

Me:  I’m pregnant.

Aaron:  How?

Me:  Seriously.

Aaron:  I mean, how do you know?

Me:  I took a test.

Aaron:  Are you sure?

Me:  I took three test.

Aaron:  Okay,  I’ll call you later.

 

That was it.  We were both in shock.  His parents were with him, and I think he wasn’t quite sure how to react.  We laugh at this now, but at the time we had no clue what to say to each other!

 

That’s how we found out about our child that we never planned.  I sometimes laugh that out of all of our four kids Cayden is the only one that wasn’t planned and he’s the one we created.  I remember those moments of me alone in the apartment crying and telling God that he had really done it now.  He had screwed up our plan.   How would this work, because we moved here feeling like he led us here and now this.  It would never work.  I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant.

 

Of course those feelings were fleeting and we were overjoyed with the new life in me eventually.  God did so much to make us lean on him.  We had no other way to get through this than with his help.  Another story for another day, but when I was about 6 months pregnant we found out that the insurance we thought we had we really didn’t have.  That’s fun when you are 6 months pregnant and poorer than you’ve ever been in your married life.  Lovely.

 

So, today on Martin Luther King Jr. Day I tell you my son, Cayden, HAPPY HAPPY 8th birthday.  You were no accident and in God’s great big plan of life you were perfectly created and formed in his perfect timing.  You are a true joy to this family.  You have so many quirks that make you unique, and you enjoy school like no other kid I know.  You are gonna be a great father and husband one day, I just know it.  You love animals and constantly talk about Carson (our old dog) with a sincere love that no one else in this house felt for that dog.  Your mouth will be what gets you in trouble around here, and you constantly have to have the last word (I’m not sure who you learned that one from!).  You are gonna love being eight!

 

Cayden I LOVE YOU!

 

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Jan132012

Book giveaway: BITTERSWEET by Shauna Niequist

By jamieivey on January 13, 2012

**UPDATE** Congrats to Brooksie who won and bless her heart has moved three times in three years!!  Thanks to you all for fabulous book selections.  I’ll be adding them all to my list on GoodReads very soon!

Here are your random numbers:

79

Timestamp: 2012-01-16 14:15:09 UTC

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Last year I read a book that as I was reading it I thought to myself that I should read this book every year because it’s such a great reminder of God working through change in our lives.  It seems that I somehow hit a stage in life where every year seems to bring change.  New kids.  New homes.  New schools.  New grades.  New friends having miscarriages.  New marriages.  (not me, but friends!)  New problems in marriage.  (not me of course … yeah right, I wish)  New … new … new … change … change … change.

 

In Shauna’s book, BITTERSWEET, she takes changes that went on in her life and brought the good out of them.  Even when changes seem so hard and difficult it’s when we stop and see the good in them that we can truly begin to benefit from the change.  To stop and see God in them will change the way you view your difficult seasons.

Oh my does that bring up a lump in anyone’s throat, or is it just me?  I can be so guilty of sitting in my difficult season and begging God to take it away, instead of begging God to move me, change me and make me stronger through the difficult seasons.

 

This book hit me smack in the face last year when I read it.  I’m let you read two paragraphs from the very first chapter and you can see how good this book is.

I believe that God is making all things new.  I believe that Christ overcame death and that pattern is apparent all through life and history: life from death, water from a stone, redemption from failure, connection from alienation.  I believe that suffering is part of the narrative, and that nothing really good gets built when everything’s easy.  I believe that loss and emptiness and confusion often give way to new fullness and wisdom.

 

But for a long season, I forgot all those things.  I didn’t stop believing in God.  It wasn’t a crisis of faith.  I prayed and served and pursued a life of faith the way I had before that season and the way I still do now.  But I realized all at once, sitting in a church on a cold dark night, that the story I was telling was the wrong one – or at the very least, an incomplete one.  I had been telling the story about how hard it was.  That’s not the whole story.  The rest of the story is that I failed to live with hope and courage and lived instead a long season of whining, self-indulgence, and fear.  This is my confession.

 

Oh my gosh I remember when I read that for the first time that my eyes swelled up with tears and I thought this too is my confession.  I have lived life in fear and not confidence.  I have lived a self-indulgent and selfish life when I should have been bursting with the seams with hope and courage.

 

I loved this book so much that I want to give one to you!  I emailed Shauna and fortunately for me she didn’t store my email under the stalker file that I’m sure she has.  I raved to her about her book and I guess she took it as sincere appreciation and not a crazy woman stalking her life!  She offered me one to give to you.  Isn’t she nice?!  I’m fairly certain that in real life we would be friends,  as well as Sandra Bullock, Julie Roberts, Jennifer Garner and Elizabeth Hasselbeck .. we could all have lunch together.  BFF’s for life.

 

So to win this book you MUST leave me a comment telling me the book that I just have to read in 2012 and do not say The Hunger Games … I know already and will be starting them soon!

That’ll get you one entry for sure.  Next are things that you can do if you want, but are not required to win.  For each one that you chose to do, be sure and leave a separate comment for each thing, so that you will have more chances to win!

  1. Since this book is about change, tell me the hardest change in your life over the past five years & what did you learn from it!

2.  Visit Shauna on facebook, or her blog, or twitter and wish her a happy day!

3.  Head on over to DREAMING BIG DREAMS on facebook and “like” it and while you are there tell me HI too!  I love new friends.

4.  Share this contest with your friends!  I know you want to win, and don’t want to share, but come on … share the love.  Either share via fb or twitter and let me know how you did in your comment!  You could use this:  Here’s a book giveaway that I want to win:  BITTERSWEET from @sniequist that @jamie_ivey is giving away!  Or make up your own line for twitter & facebook!

 

FIVE chances that you have to win.  FIVE ways to win a new book, and not just a random, ordinary book, but a book that I can guarantee will make you stop in mid sentence and reflect and sometimes even cry.  It’s just that good and that soul stirring.  Good luck!

 

Contest ends January 15th at midnight (CST) – GOOD LUCK!!!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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