Homemade popcorn is probably one of my favorite snacks. Not only is it melt in your mouth delicious, it's super easy to make and cheap!

We love having people over for game nights or movies and this is the perfect no fuss snack to bust out and everyone is so impressed that its homemade with real butter. It tastes so much better than the microwavable kind.

Here is what you need:

• Non GMO popcorn kernels
• Coconut or Olive oil (I prefer coconut and I do think it has a slightly different taste)
• Real Butter
• Salt 

Here is how you do it:

• Melt appx 1 tbsp coconut oil (or heat olive oil) in medium to large sauce pan.
• Almost cover the bottom of the pan with popcorn kernels (appx 1/4 cup) roll the seeds around to coat them with oil.
• Cover pan and let pop. Shake pan occasionally to prevent burning and keep unpopped kernels on the bottom. (if the pan starts filling quickly you can dump some in a bowl while the rest pop)
• Once popcorn is popped, get it out of that hot pan and into a large bowl.
• Turn off flame and put as much or as little butter in hot pan until melted.
• Pour melted butter over popcorn and shake around. Add salt to taste. 

Thats it!

I have a gas range and use a high flame. I have tried making it on electric and have a harder time, but I'm not used to cooking that way so if you are, I'm am sure it will work for you just fine. The more you do it the easier it will be.

Enjoy!

Fun Free Summer Activities

So my hubby and I are in a bit of a pickle. He has just graduated from the University of Virginia (I'm so proud!) and we now are no longer getting the GI Bill benefits and the monthly housing stipend that we were relying on. Mark has a job lined up but they haven't given him a start date. Even with that, this is a temporary, low paying, part time job because he is taking a gap year to gain experience in his field before grad school. So that leaves us with 1 small income a month and an unsure idea of when he will start getting paid and what his income will look like.

My income doesn't quite cover our basic bills not including food, gas and all the extra variable expenses. Luckily we have built up a bit of a savings, but I would really like to keep that for future stuff (like babies :)) So we really want to work on living smartly. We have always wanted to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with but it hasn't always been our focus to spend minimally. I am really excited about this time because I think it will really help us in the long run too. Learning how to master a budget is going to be a challenge for sure but I know this is a time in our life that we wont forget. Since it is summer and the days are longer and Mark has so much free time, I want to enjoy it with him. I don't want to mope around because we don't have enough money to do anything fun, so I have come up with a list of low budget fun!

1. Wash the cars together- I sit in a windowless office 8.5 hours a day, I would love to come home and enjoy the sunshine and spraying down my husband the car could be a blast and productive!

2. Encouragement Mob someone- I'm sure none of your friends would mind if you dropped by and surprised them with homemade cookies! It would also be fun to make those homemade cookies together. One time Mark and I made a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies and put them in 4 different containers with a scripture attached, then we played ding dong ditch and left the cookies at the doorsteps. Only one of our friends caught us the others still have no clue it was us. 

3. Picnic- I love picnics :) It wouldn't be completely free because we would have to pay for the picnic food (unless we begged other picnickers) but that's okay, we have to pay for food anyway. 

4. Swimming pool- We live in an apartment complex and have free access to the pool. Its really not been busy and we have been enjoying it. 

5. Bike Rides- I'm not the most confident biker, but I know it would really encourage Mark and the more I do it the more comfortable I will feel. A couple of weeks ago we went on an 8 mile ride. That was my first time on a mountain bike in years. (I have a beach cruiser) It was hard, but parts of it was actually really fun! I am looking forward to doing it again. 

6. Hikes-Another thing I am hoping to gain confidence in. We have hiked "humpback rock" a couple of times and have our eyes our for new hiking spots. 

7. Fridays After 5-In Charlottsville there are free concerts on the downtown mall every Friday in the summer. Check your local area to see what is offered. 

Those are some ways we plan on spending our summer days. What do you plan to do this summer?

Goin' for it!

I never intended on blogging about blogging but this subject has been at the forefront of my life recently and I find it really fascinating. I officially started my blog like 2 months ago and since then I froze... It's not that I haven't been making it a priority or anything. In fact, I have been binge reading all of the articles and advice I could possibly find. I even went to the library yesterday and checked out "Blogging for Dummies" (I will let you know how it is later ;-)) I've just had all of these fears about messing up and failing and missing out on something or doing it wrong. The more I read about it, the less confident I feel. I keep hearing from other bloggers "I wish I would have done _____ when I started my blog" and I don't want to end up learning those lessons the hard way.

After 2 weeks I am realizing all of this obsessing has gotten me absolutely no where. I have decided I just need to post something, and since this is what has caught my attention lately, I wanted to share a bit about what I have been learning about blogging. Along the way I have found that other bloggers are the best resources. It is so great to know that there is very little competition in the blogging community. Contrarily, bloggers are really helpful and eager to share their secrets to success and teach what they have learned. I have visited many blogs that have been very helpful, but a few of them stand out. (It sounds silly, but I feel like they have become my best friends and I've never met them!)

My top 3:

1. Abby at justagirlandherblog.com has really given me the push to actually start my blog. She breaks everything down so it is easy to understand. I took her "7 Days to Start a Blog" challenge and that is how this little beauty of a blog was born :-).  I even had a question that I emailed to her and she actually responded!
2. Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income has a great newsletter that I signed up for. I am really interested in earning as I blog and he has great tips! I am not very savvy when it comes to this stuff, but I don't need to be to understand what he is saying. It has also been so motivational to just read about all of the possibilities there are to earn money through blogging. He also seems to be so genuine and sincere and I love that.
3. Amy Lynn Andrews has wonderful new blogger friendly site. Her website seems to be specifically for teaching blogging. She has a great Contents page that has tons of helpful posts on blogging and how to be effective and meet your blogging goals. She goes over all of the basics there. Also check out her "Useletter." This is a weekly email with loads of information. This can be overwhelming and sometimes I don't know what to do with the info, but the contents page is great!

As I mentioned, I was completely overwhelmed by all of the tons and tons of "help" and didn't know where to begin. If you are thinking about starting a blog I would recommend referring to these first. Now, I will say, I did not follow every step or all of the advice that I was given. I even found some conflicting advice. I am just trusting that I don't need to be an expert before I move forward and I know there will be a learning curve and I will know more and become better the more I do it. I have come to the realization that I am going to make mistakes and maybe miss out on opportunities, but that cant stop me. It didn't stop the other bloggers who share their regrets and they are doing just fine! I have decided that this is going to be a process and a wonderful journey and I can't miss out that.

Is there something on your heart that you have been thinking about pursuing? What is stopping you from goin' for i

Proverbs 31 Series: Week 2

"Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value."

-proverbs 31:11

Wow. Wouldn't you want someone to say this about you?! I definitely would, but am I really someone my husband has full confidence it?

I have asked him if he has full confidence in me and he said yes! That's great, but the truth is, I didn't believe him... I think he is serious, but I don't always have full confidence in myself in certain ways. I thought about specific areas and times when I have let me husband down. I can remember multiple times when I was off for the day and he had to go to school and he asked me to call about a charge or a bill or something like that, that needed to be straightened out, and I said I would do it, but then I didn't. I could tell when he got home and I told him I didn't do what he asked, he lost confidence in me. I lost confidence in myself as a wife. I felt horrible each time. Not because he reacted in a way that made me feel horrible (he never did), but because I knew I wasn't being the partner that he needed and that I want to be. I knew I let him down. For me, the root of that is selfishness and laziness those are the sins that I struggle with the most and these are good reasons for my husband not to have full confidence in me.

Here are a few areas, I thought of that I need to be more intentional about:

1. Running the household (grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning)

2. Finances. Does my husband trust how I handle our money and that I wont splurge out of emotions.

3. Backing up my husbands decisions. I think this can be a big one, some times I notice Mark is hesitant to tell me about things and I know it is because of the way I tend to respond when I don't hear what I want.

4. Controlling my emotions. Not that I am this crazy woman, but sometimes my emotions get the best of me.

5. Managing my time. Sometimes I have the mindset that if I am not working its my time to relax and do whatever I want. I think down time can be important, but I need to be wise in how I spend my time. I like to procrastinate, but just because something can wait doesn't mean I should relax instead of doing it.

Proverbs 14:1 says

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."

I think it is important to intentionally build my house. I am sure the foolish woman isn't intentional about tearing hers down, it just happens if you aren't working on building it.

Hope this helped in some way. See ya next week!

Week 1: Proverbs 31 Study Series - Proverbs 31:10

Hello!

I am very excited about this series. I have been enjoying digging into this character so far and its just the first scripture! I hope you will enjoy it too. If you would like, join me in this prayer.

My Prayer:

God please open my eyes and my heart to your word. Transform me into the Godly woman that you want me to be. Direct me. As I meditate on this scripture help me see you and see how you want me to respond. Mold me this week and throughout this series, into a "wife of noble character" I know you love my husband so much and want for him a wife who seeks your wisdom over any other advice on wifehood, which is constantly being thrown at me from every direction. I know that I have to be intentional and seek you first. Thank you father. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Proverbs 31:10 NIV

 "A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies."

Noble Character, I seem to have skipped that part in the past and almost change the scripture to say "A wife is worth far more than rubies" but that's not what God says, and that is not what King Lemuels mother prays for...

When I here "noble" I think about the Bareans Paul came across in Acts 17:10-12

"As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men."

Why were the Bereans noble?

Because they "received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures everyday" I remember studying the bible in 2008/2009 and some wonderful sisters showing me this scripture. They taught me the Three E's.

The Three E's to noble character:

1. Eagerly
2. Examine (scripture)
3. Everyday

This is different than reading your bible everyday..

Eagerness. That's like the "Oh, I can't wait!!" kind of excitement. It can be hard just getting into the habit of reading my bible daily but am I excited about my time with God? Am I eager to hear what he wants me to hear and to get to know him a bit better everyday?

Examine.

Who, when, what, where, why, how....I think context is so important when you are reading the bible. It can be easy to read the bible and not connect, but I have found that understanding the "W" questions help me get a sense of the context. Especially the when question, things were a lot different back then, than now. When the bible says something like "Then they went to Jerusalem" it is so easy to accept that and move on but when you think about when this was and you realize they had to walk and carry their belongings and take their livestock and so much more, you get a little more out if it because you realize the perseverance and faith they had. Now that is just an example, but you get the idea, right?

Everyday.

This can be the easiest of the three or this can be the hardest. What I mean by that is it can be really hard to get into the habit of reading daily, but once you do the hard part is not doing it just out of habit and focus more on the eager heart and examining scriptures.

Honestly, right now this is hard for me. I have fallen out of the habit. I have not been in my bible everyday this week. I go through periods where I am reading daily and I have slumps too. I find that my slumps are when life gets a little out of rythym. I am staying up later, sleeping in later and rushing to work forgetting my time with God. Lately Mark and I have been taking weekend trips to visit people and it is so easy to forget God, or feel uncomfortable hibernating in my room in the mornings when everyone else is sitting around the table enjoying coffee and eggs. Then during the week I work 40 hours and I'm catching up with some of the things I couldn't do over the weekend. But this scripture really inspires me because I know the first step in being a noble wife for my husband (and for myself and everyone else who sees our marriage) is getting in the Word daily. Not only that, I believe it is key to having a relationship with God.

Proverbs 31 Study Series

I just love the Proverbs 31 Woman! Every time I read about her I am so inspired. Okay, well I know she is not a real woman... more like an ideal woman, but the picture of this ideal woman inspires me. I also love that the passage is so incredibly practical. It has been especially helpful in my role as wife. It's incredible that every time I read it, I leave my quiet times knowing exactly where I can grow and not only that, but having direction on how.

The thing is, with me anyway, I have to keep revisiting her because when I don't focus on her I sorta slip.... I know will never be just like to proverbs 31 woman and I will always have room to grow in my role as a Godly woman and wife, but in 10 years from now I want to look back with confidence knowing I was intentional in my marriage and in my relationship with God and actually see that I have grown.

So.. I decided to do a bible study series on her. Every Monday (for until we get through the passage) I will be sharing little bits of what I have learned so far in studying out the Proverbs 31 woman. I hope to grow through this study and plan on focusing in depth on each scripture and really build conviction.

This is so exciting! Usually I break it down by scripture and study one each day, but my intention for this is to really meditate on a scripture or two for the whole week and practice it daily for the week and then build on it each week. We will see how it goes.... and maybe if you're reading along hopefully you will find some value in it too :)

See ya next Monday!

-Laura

Day 1

This is my first post on One Day at a Time. I have had such a hard time starting a blog because I feel overwhelmed. I want my blog to be like the blogs I love to read and I just don't know how. I am realizing it doesn't happen over night. It happens "one day at a time."

I am not even exactly sure what I want to blog about. I have so many interests. I just want to blog about what I feel like talking about at the time. I don't want to lock myself into one genre, even though all the advice I see out there says I should focus on one audience. I think it will be okay this way and along the way, I may find one topic that I love blogging about but for now now I will experiment. If anyone is reading this, I hope you will stick around and see what happens with my blog.

Thanks,
Laura