UPDATE : we're a little fruity...

I spent the afternoon with this little love bug... we didn't do much of anything out of the ordinary. We played with blocks, he nursed and we went for a walk! 

We are beyond ready for spring!

he's quite the explorer these days...

and I just love his handsome smile, decorated with five teethe!

I was so lucky to spend the evening with my true valentine!

We sipped pomegranate  cherry juice from the same glasses we used at our wedding; adorned with strawberry hearts!

I had a DIY fondue set! 

we answered 100 questions and chatted for over an hour.

**You can find the list of questions here!**

I drew this card for Jimmy. hehe!

we did not stray from our diet (aside from the chocolate dip, but the fruit cancels that out, right??)

we finished the night watching The Butler! it was wonderful!

**DIPS**

Chocolate:

8 oz heavy whipping cream brought to a slight boil, 1 bag of chocolate chips, stir continuously.

Strawberry & Raspberry: 

I blended about 1 cup raspberries and one cup strawberries (Both from the freezer section, thawed.) 

After the berries are all pureed. Pour the mixture into a sauce pan and turn on medium heat, stir regularly!

 In a separate bowl mix a few Tbs water with some cornstarch (I honestly don't know how much of either, but just enough so that the cornstarch dissolves) 

Once the berry mixture is hot, slowly add cornstarch mixture, stirring continuously, until it reaches your desired thickness. I also added a tiny bit of sugar because it was REALLY bitter! 

Happy Valentines Day! 

Printables (invitation and place cards) from The Dating Divas.

High Five for Friday!

1. I got a trim and added bangs to my new do! I usually cut bangs in once a year and then let them grow out!

2. James also got two hair cuts. One on sunday morning before church and one sunday night in the tub because he was wiggly and tired the first go around and needed touched up!

3. We are officially looking at a position in Wyoming as senior pastors and we are in the process of planning a trip out that way next month! our first family "vacation".

4. James had his first case of "i'm so tired i'm just going to sleep right here right now!" it was presh.

5. Tonight is valentines day and I have a fondue party planned for the hubs and I! I am VERY excited!! you can find the awesome printables here.

how was your week??
~paige

Morning Thoughts over Coffee

As I sit here sipping my coffee, tossing thoughts about our future back and forth in my head, I am burdened. Burdened with worry. I look to Luke chapter 12 and am finding peace.

Let me back up...

As you all know from this post we are currently in search of a church to pastor. To say this is a difficult decision would be an understatement. I thought it was going to be SO FUN.. FALSE ..here I sit worrying about HOUSING?!
seriously? Of all the things I could use my time doing, this is NOT what I want to be stuck on!

I believe God will give both Jimmy and I a sense of peace when the right church comes up. I believe He will open doors that need to be opened and firmly shut the ones we should not enter. But Currently? Currently I could not feel farther from peace...

As a mom, as a wife, as a human I can't help but think where will we LIVE? The current town we are considering is my husbands dream. It would so perfectly fit his passions. I know he could flourish as a pastor in this little town.

so why are my heels dug in?

Shouldn't I feel the same way?

WHY AM I SO WORRIED?

Is it because there are NO rental listings for homes to be found on the internet? (seriously, none whatsoever.)

Jesus says in chapter 12 of the book of Luke, "DO NOT worry about your life." Don't worry about what you will eat, don't worry about what you will wear. "Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing."

Oh such sweet words. Words I need to embrace. If this is where God wants us, we will have a home. We will have ALL of our needs met and be blessed beyond measure for following our calling and living within His will for our lives.

So, to all you worrying moms out there, STOP.
I need to stop, right now.

Everything about this place screams our names, yet here I sit, worrying about things that God has had under control since long before the thoughts popped into my little brain.

This post is in no way a commitment to said community, but my expression and declaration to be open minded and trust that God will both provide for our EVERY need and fill me with a peace beyond understanding, a peace only the Mighty Creator can provide.

I am excited to visit this community and to hopefully see our potential new home (literally) and to see what doors God opens for our little family!

What is your "housing" on this Wednesday morning? Give it to God and get on with the greater things this day has to offer, because worrying is NOT one of them!

Lord, I pray that You will allow me to break free from this burden of worry that has overtaken me. I pray that You will open my eyes to the need in this community. If this is where we go from here, I pray that I have the strength to trust, embrace and grow with the calling you have placed on our hearts and lives!

~Paige

just a boy!

it's what's for breakfast

James absolutely LOVES toast. He would eat it for every meal if I let him! In an effort to change up his breakfast routine, my friend Chelsey gave me this recipe. It provides both a heathy dose of banana as well as some protein from the peanut butter, with NO added sugar! 

What you need:

2 eggs

1 Cup peanut butter

2 ripe bananas

1/2 tsp baking soda

1tsp Vanilla

(I doubled the recipe and froze some!)

mix it all together...

bake for about 10 minutes at 400...

viola! 

safe to say James enjoyed them ....

-Paige

Social Media in Ministry

The time has come: my very FIRST guest blogger! Hip, Hip! Hooray! With out a fancy introduction or any further hesitation, I hand over the key board to my other half:

Well I suppose I better introduce myself before just jumping in on this blog. I’m Jimmy Tolle, the husband of the beautiful and talented author of this Blog. My wife has graciously agreed to allow me to post on her blog, partially due to having a multimedia in ministry class that requires me to post on a blog, but also as something I have wanted to do anyway; to share some of my thoughts.

As anyone who has been following this blog knows, we are called into full time ministry. This blog post is going to be focused on the use, good and bad, about multimedia in ministry. We 
can all agree that everywhere we look we see multimedia, its part of our culture and it is never going away. So how can a pastor/Christian successfully use multimedia, or should they use it? I think any pastor who doesn’t take advantage of multimedia is missing out on a tool.  In this post, I’m going to be focused mostly on the use of the internet, and with that things like social media outlets like Facebook, podcasts of sermons and blog posts, the list just goes on. Today nearly everyone uses multimedia to some extent or another. So as a pastor why wouldn’t we want to use multimedia as a tool? The fact is we could probably go evangelize everyday for a month, and we probably wouldn’t reach as many people that we could on a day’s work of well placed multimedia post. 

The world is changing, and people are changing. Do I think people should spend every wakening hour online? Of course not! Do I think ministry should change with the times? The answer is of course! If we don’t change with the times, than that is just foolish.Simple thought, maybe you don’t have confidence to go out on the street and evangelize. However; how easy is it for you to simply post a Bible verse, or some thoughts about your faith on Facebook. How many people will see that? Is that evangelism? I think it is. On another thought, just like it can be used for good, it can also be used negatively. You have to remember that once something is posted online, it nearly impossible to get it back. So with that, we need to be thinking about what people will be thinking about something we post. A simple non-Christian statement can cause everyone to consider you a hypocrite when you post something about Christ. So we must be smart, and give some thought to what we post. 

These are just few of my thoughts of multimedia in ministry. Over the next couple months I will be posting some thoughts for my class, but my wife has given me permission to be a guest blogger on other topics whenever I want! There are some to other things I would like to share that going on in my heart, so stay tuned. God Bless and thanks for reading! 

Isn't he awesome? While this was more of an introductory post, I am excited for you all to hear his voice & his passion in the coming months and years! My hope and prayer (as I have previously mentioned) is that you all grow in your relationship with Christ, your husband and your family as we do life together! I want this to be a community, a place where we can talk about style, home making and marriage, but also get real about God, ministry and the bigger things in life. I hope I encourage each of you, and I am certain that my husbands touch will bless you as well! Have a wonderful week!!