chosen recap: day two

Hi ladies, I am still soaking in all that I learned from the Chosen women's conference, and I wanted to share a little bit more of some wisdom I am trying to soak in from these wise ladies that poured into me 2 weeks ago. The second day started out with these two crazy ladies doing a little comedy act, and Brittany on the right had a pillow in her backside. hilarious.

Helen Lee was our first speaker of the day and she encouraged us to live out the dreams that the Lord has for us. Helen is the author of the book The Missional Mom, and just being real I haven't finished this book yet, but I am in the middle of reading it. All I can say about this book is: wow, what an encouragement to moms that have all of these hopes and dreams of "going big time", and then they have kids which seem to make us put our dreams on hold. I would highly recommend this book to any mom, especially new moms! :)

In my notes I wrote down that the Lord wants us to focus on His dreams He has for us and not so much our own dreams. How many can relate to that? Just going throughout my day I do things that I want to do, not so much focusing on what the Lord wants me to do.

Helen shared this verse with us:

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord."

Haggai 1:7-8

She left us with a challenge of living out the Lord's dreams for us and encouraged us that "If I'm alive, my mission is not over!" I knew they Lord was speaking to me about what my mission is and living it out for Him!

After the morning session, there were breakouts all over the church, and I attended the breakout with the fabulous Jessi Connolly! She encouraged us to speak life in every area of our lives. In our home, in ministry, through social media, and on our blogs. She encouraged us to ask the Lord throughout the day, "who is louder, me or Him?" That hit me hard, because sometime I go throughout my day and I am not letting the Lord speak louder than me. That is where this encouragement is so good, I am reminded that the Lord is bigger than me, I need to let Him lead me throughout my day! I am trying to apply "speaking life" to my life daily. Thank you Jessi for all your encouragement!

Jessi left us speaking life over us with the scripture Isaiah 61:1

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners."

After the breakout, our missional moms leaders group had the awesome opportunity to take Helen Lee to lunch. We had the best time, and so encouraging to share what the Lord is doing in our lives. I love each and every one of these ladies! If you want to know more about the missional moms community please visit this link! You can also follow updates on twitter! @missionalmoms

It was so beautiful to eat lunch looking on the beach and enjoy this beautiful January day with 70 degree temps! This is myself with Helen Lee. She is such a sweet women of God and was fun to introduce her to shrimp and grits! :) southern hospitality right there!

The last session of the day Lisa Bevere spoke again and she talked to us about being dangerous and awake! She talked about her most recent book Lioness Arising and how to wake up and change the world!

Lisa shared this verse with us:

Numbers 23:24

"The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims."

Last but not least, the after party! This picture was taken by one of my friends before it all got started. There was dancing, a photo booth, a candy bar, marshmallow roasting stations to make smores outside, and did I mention dancing?!?!

It really was such a blast! You heard it here first, I'm inviting you to Chosen 2013, January 24-25, mark your calendars, take of work, you are not going to want to miss it! :)

What a hot mess we were at the end of it all. I don't think I left the church until 11:15pm, and there was still people dancing! Can't wait until Chosen 2013! :)

"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession."

Deuteronomy 7:6

I am Chosen! recap: day 1

Wow! Where do I begin? This past weekend was amazing. I attended the women's conference at Seacoast Church, and I am already way too excited about next year! I am still soaking in all that God has done in my life this weekend. I really just wanted to share some scripture and pictures from this weekend. SO here we go!

As you walk up to the church there was a red carpet leading straight to this huge mirror with flowers and beautiful decor around it. There was a vision for this from the women's minister and what a blessing this was for so many women. The women were escorted by a few men of the church on the red carpet. It was just a great start to the conference of showing all the women that THEY ARE CHOSEN! See that beautiful chosen logo painted on the window? yep, my sweet friend April did that on the windows all over the church. SO beautiful!

This verse kept coming up throughout the conference and the breakout I went to on day two, and I wanted to share it just to remind all of you ladies reading here that the Lord is with you and has anointed each one of us. What more could we ask for?!?! We are so blessed to be chosen by Him!

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Luke 4:17-18

I am a part of the missional moms community, so I made this sign for our info booth. I also made one for the sisterhood booth! They looked beautiful on the tables!

Here a a couple of the seating environments in the breezeway at the church- one in which was a bed swing hanging in the hallway. Everything was so beautiful!

The first night of the conference our awesome Pastor, Greg Surratt spoke along with Lisa Bevere. If you have never heard her speak, she is phenomenal! Lisa encouraged us to be virtuous & capable. Now those are two things that I am now striving to be through the Lord to serve others. I love this verse she shared with us:

"The Lord announces victory, and throngs of women shout the happy news."

Psalm 68:11

I was blessed to be apart of the Chosen boutique and sell some of my items that I am now listing in my etsy shop. {I'm putting the headbands in there soon, I promise!} This was the only picture I took of the headbands and hairbows, but I also had some monogrammed items for sale too.

Some of the other women who sold in the Chosen boutique were

Jessi from Naptime diaries, April from Worship Artist Ministries, Tiffany from the Sassy Shop, Stacie with her Sabbath in a Jar scrub, Jessica & her adoption fund beauties, and Hillary from noonday. It was such a blessing to be able to hangout with these ladies all weekend while we sold our crafty beauties! Each one of these ladies are dear friends of mine, and I support them, you should too! :)

In case you haven't seen me, I got 8 inches cut off my hair on Thursday morning before the Chosen conference. I absolutely love it! If you are in Charleston and need a beautician, Ashley is your girl! Message her on fb and she will get you in! Tell her that I sent you! :)

It was kind of perfect timing for a haircut. When I got to the church and walked up on the red carpet and looked in that mirror, I was reminded that He has chose me, no matter if my hair is short, long, messy, or just perfect. That humbled me just to see myself with a new fancy do, that He loves me no matter what!

Lisa Bevere also shared this verse with us at the conference:

"So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law."

Galatians 5:1

That is some powerful stuff! We are free in Him. Praise the Lord! To Him be all the Glory!

our busy sweet girl

Time is going by way too fast, and I can't seem to get enough of this sweet girl. She is getting so big, and so busy! I can hardly keep up with her! I've been trying to take lots of pictures lately, to soak up all of this toddlerhood because before I know it, she will be going to school and talking about boys! {oh goodness, not ready for that!} But when she gives me and her Daddy this sweet face, she can pretty much get anything thing she wants.

Then again, most of the time, the pictures I take look a little more something like these two:

You mamas know what I'm talking about! Babies running from the camera because they have so many more important things to do while outside than to sit still and say "cheese" for the camera! lol.

Me and Mags, and you can see Mike taking the picture in the reflection of my sunglasses! {What a hottie!} And my hair is getting chopped off tomorrow. I'm pretty excited!

Then there was that one day that I decked Maggie Claire out in some cheetah and her jean skirt. yeah, she rocked it with her pretty self! :) I love having a little girl! I just dress her up like a baby doll everyday! {But we are praying for a maggie claire to have baby brother next, to even out the pink/blue ratio around here! lol}

I love her face when she looks down. Her cheeks look so sweet and those eyelashes are so pretty!

Yeah, I just want to kiss that sweet face all day long.

But I promise you, she does cry and pitch fits. It's so cute to take pictures of your kid crying, especially when they don't get there way! {She wanted another snack, after already having about 157 snacks! seriously! hehe}

Happy Wednesday and I hope you all have a great rest of the week! Tomorrow Chosen starts and I'll be back when it's all over to tell you all about it! :)

"Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!” "

Lamentations 3:23-24

a new year

It's a new year, new goals, new inspirations, new exciting things, and a fresh way to start something new in my life! Oh yes... and this sweet little 15 month old to keep me on my toes! {seriously, can't believe she is 15 months old}.

I've been thinking so much about this year, I made a list of several things I would like to do this year, and a couple I've already gotten started on! You might have seen my list that I tweeted about. I started an etsy shop last week, and without even promoting it, I've already made my first sale! I only have about 8 items for sale right now, but I am adding more weekly! I would love for you to visit my shop and tell me what you would like to see more of! I just finished a Valentines shirt for Maggie Claire that I haven't listed yet, but it is so cute!

I've added more things to my list like taking a weekly beach trip with friends this summer. We will be at the beach more this summer than last, and that makes me so giddy! Another one I've added is to have more date nights with my handsome hubby. There are never enough date nights! I would like to go on a big vacation this year, maybe we'll finally take our cruise! haha! {You can read about our last cruise experience here about how we never made it on the boat!}

Starting the year off right is key for me! I've been getting ready for Chosen, the women's conference at my church, and I am so so so so excited about it. I just can't believe that it's next week!!! If you are in the Charleston area, you need to check it out. You can buy tickets here, you will not regret it! It's going to be fabulous!!

Well, babies are calling my name... so I better run! I'm aiming to blog 2x a week now, but we'll see how that goes!

"The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives."

Isaiah 61:1

cousin fun & hat weather

On Wednesday, we headed over to my brother & sister-in-law's house for Maggie Claire to have a little playdate with her cousins Jack and Tate! She had the.best.time. Thanks Bethany & Brad for hosting us. :)

The kids played in the backyard for a while and ran off all of their energy!

Jack was showing us all his new digger he got for Christmas.

Attempt to get a picture of all three of them. They are so sweet! I love these little blonde headed babies! :)

Since it has been a little chilly outside lately, you know I had to get pictures of Maggie Claire in her adorable cupcake hat she got for Christmas!

seriously- cutest cupcake ever!

teaching mags how to warm her hands by rubbing them together

I love this picture of Maggie Claire and her friend Will who is 11 months old. I watch Will a few days a week and Maggie Claire loves him. She gets so excited when he is here! He is such a sweetie! :)

"A friend loves at all times"

Proverbs 17:17a