Oh good gracious....it's been busy around here. And I think I like it that way...mostly. I have to be careful not to overbook myself and most importantly, make sure that I'm spending time with my hot hubby and taking quiet time for myself. 

There's a chance I overbooked myself this week. We are making lunch tomorrow for the 15 employees at our foster care center and hosting our Last Chance/First Glance open house on Thursday. We're pretty excited, and I may have gone overboard on the free goodies I'm taking them. I really, really like to spoil people. 

Here are the 15 bags I've been working on for the past couple days.....{there is a very chance that these bags will be very similar to the freebies my Last Chance/First Glance attendees will receive for stopping by.} 

Each gift bag has a catalog sack on the inside with free samples from both Scentsy and Velata, and a personal letter inside each one. 

I made Landry Liquid and Washer Whiff samples tonight, and they turned out so cute! I found plastic test tubes on amazon that I used for the laundry liquid. 

I also included a new Fall and Winter catalog, a Harvest collection flyer, a September monthly flyer, and a couple wax samples. 

For Velata goodies, I added one of our Artisian Rub samples, a recipe card (to match the rub), and a dark chocolate sample along with a current catalog. 

I'm thinking those are some pretty amazing freebies, but our case worker (and all her friends) definitely deserve it. 

I thought you might like to see what I've been up to. I'll let you know how lunch goes tomorrow. It should be lots of fun. 

Santa Maria BBQ Chicken Chili

I'm a huge fan of all things crockpot. This is my latest creation, and new favorite chili, featuring my favorite Velata Artisan Rub, Santa Maria BBQ.

Ingredients: 

4 chicken breasts
Santa Maria BBQ rub
1 chopped onion (yellow or white) 

2 cans stewed tomatoes
4 cans beans (pinto, kidney, dark kidney, white kidney beans) 

Chicken stock

Directions:

Placed chopped onion in the bottom of the crock pot. 

Sprinkle Santa Maria BBQ rub on chicken breasts and place in crock pot. 

Add tomatoes (undrained) to crock pot.
Drain and rinse beans and add to crock pot.

Add chicken stock until beans are covered. 

Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. 

Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Enjoy! 

 

Driven Dreamer Planner Winners Announced!

One thing I know for sure is that you people LOVE planner posts. Some of you are as crazy about finding the perfect planner as I am! 

You guys have stuck with me through so many planner loves! The current love, as you may have read, is the Driven Dreamer from An Organized Girl. I hated sharing with you though because I knew you couldn't get your hands on one, since it's sold out! 

But lucky for you, I snagged a couple extras (mostly because I hoard planners, and sort of because I love you). Tonight we announce our Driven Dreamer winners.....yep, 2 of them! 

I used random.org to generate 2 random numbers to correlate with the comments on the post Planners, Planners, and more planners from last Sunday. 

Congratulations to Natalie Espinoza who was our 2nd comment on the post. Natalie will have 1st choice of color. 

Natalie EspinozaAugust 17, 2014 at 12:04 AM

I love this!! I have been researching planners and this helps a lot!! Love them all but I can't ever make a decision. Look forward to your next post!!

And congratulations to Angie who was our 57th comment on the post.

AngieAugust 18, 2014 at 1:36 PM

Guess what?!! I too, love planners!! Hahaha, planner lovers unite! ;) I attempted to get on the electronic calendar/planner wagon but just couldn't do it. I LOVE paper planners and don't think I would have graduated nursing school without mine, it was my lifeline. For the last year I have been using a May Designs planner, and while I love that it's customizable, I'm not a fan of the layout. Thanks for the chance to win! :)

I'm so excited for both of you to get your new Driven Dreamers! Send me an email to allisondalke@gmail.com with your address and it'll be in the mail. 

Happy planning! 

Love and Marriage

Brian and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss at the end of July. Everything about that statement is true except for the "bliss" part. 

There is nothing blissful about marriage. Marriage is work. It's good and honorable and wonderful work, but it's work. 

In ten years, we have had our share of highs and lows. I don't think any strong marriage can claim that it hasn't had highs and lows. 

Tonight after a full day of family and fun, I sent Brian a text from across the house asking if he wanted to escape for a walk. Both of our moms are here (which we love) and Brian's baby brother (Brad), and we had a dining room full of men drafting their perfect fantasy football leagues for most of the afternoon. My introvert self needed a little escape from the crazy. 

So we set out. To do nothing but walk. Quality time and conversation are what I need for our relationship to feel healthy. Respect and physical touch are what he needs for our relationship to feel healthy. And that is true for most couples, but those are the easiest things to let go of when life gets busy. 

Brian and I recently each read a book called For Women Only and For Men Only. Not only did it completely change our relationship, but it opened each of our eyes to the way the other sex thinks and functions. 

I just thought you might like to know. I believe that every person should read these books....married or not. It is enlightening to understand how a man thinks and how incredibly different it is from the way that a woman thinks. 

Our relationship is not perfect. Perfect relationships don't exist because perfect people don't exist, but I really believe these books can help your relationships with the opposite sex be much healthier and fulfilling. 

Happy reading! 

Preparing to be Full

We are definitely in a season of transition. My brother-in-law moved in last week to spend his senior year here playing golf. He's a good kid, and we love having him here. It's going to be a great year. Our kids love having him here despite Wyatt's face in the picture below. {I think he was concerned about the candles Brad had just blown out...ya know...our kids never see real candles.} 

Not only did Brad move in, but my kiddos went to school this week! I won't pretend I didn't cry on the 1st day. I lost it, and wanted to go back and pick them up, but it only lasted a day. After that, they were happy, we were happy, everyone was happy. What's not to love about happy? 

Plus, they only go to school Monday-Thursday. It's pretty much perfect {except that I thought it was Saturday all day today, and I took 3 kids to Target....who does that?} 

So I'm here, preparing for this house to be full. Full of family, people, kids, and love. Oh and food. Lots of food. 

As I've been looking through my journal from our Italy trip, I found a page full of a list I titled, "How I want Italy to change me." On that list was fullness. To be full of life. Full of love. To have a house always full of people. 

We are definitely getting that. My in-laws will be here this weekend and my mom, so I get to practice that full-house thing this weekend. 

Part of "preparing to be full" has meant that we're intentionally working through each room of our house to make it more functional to serve, host, and love others. Systems, a place for everything, a plan, if you will. It's all there. 

Even tonight, I sit here thinking about how we have a couple weeks to get in the groove of school and activities and business before Brian and I head out of town for almost 2 full weeks. We're headed to Boise for the 1st ever Velata convention. We are elated. Plus, we're meeting our friends there, and we'll spend a few days with them camping and dreaming and catching up. 

Immediately after that, we get to spend several days with Scentsy's top leaders at our annual SuperStar Director Summit. It's a time to re-charge and collaborate and learn, and it is sweet food to my soul. 

Brian and I will fly from Boise to Pittsburg to help launch the business of 3 new team members. 

To say it's going to be a busy week-and-a-half is an understatement. In addition to all that, when we come home from Pittsburgh, there is a very good chance that our home will officially be open as a foster home again which means, we will very likely welcome a baby into our home the middle of September (that's less than a month away folks!). 

When I say we're preparing to be full, I mean it. But full is good. Empty is bad. 

I want to be full. I want my home to be full. I want my heart to be full. So we're preparing over here to be full. Preparing to be full of love, full of Christ, full of community, full of good. 

Italy...Day 1...Rome {Part 1}

We snapped this selfie on the plane right before we left D.C. on our way to Rome. 

I remember how the Rome airport smelled of cigarette smoke. Distinctly and undeniably. 

I remember how narrow the streets were. Our cab driver drove fast and unconcerned about anyone in his way. {I would soon learn that this is how all Italian drivers drive.}

I remember the apartment balconies. Nearly every balcony we passed had flowers on it. I found so much simple joy in the flowers on the balconies. I don't know why, but I did. 

A lemon tree on a balcony. 

The streets, the buildings, the architecture. The things that were here and have been here long before America was ever America.

I couldn't help but wonder who had walked those streets....the wars they've seen, the heroes and the villains they have lived through.

And as we neared the building we were staying in, I so vividly remember this man and his dog and that newspaper stand. He reminded me so much of my Pa. My heart was already in love with Italy after a single cab drive through the streets of Rome. 

We arrived at our building and were escorted to the top floor. Our bags took the lift, we took 6 flights of stairs. 

It was only 9:00 am. We had flown through the night from Washington D.C. into Italy's capital city. We had no idea we were arriving on the soon-to-be-historic day that two Popes were canonized by two living Popes at the Vatican. There were an extra three million people in Rome that day, and we were two of them. 

It was overcast and cloudy that morning. From the rooftop deck of our building, we could see and hear the Pope's helicopter flying over the city. 

We enjoyed a simple Italian breakfast on the rooftop of Nutella toast and cappuccino, cheese, ham, and yogurt. Brian had a bowl of cornflakes and milk too. 

We met Nancy and Art from D.D on the rooftop that morning. They were celebrating 35 years of marriage. We talked Scentsy and real estate and children while listening to the birds and enjoying our view of the spot where Julius Caesar was killed. 

We got settled into our {tiny} room and spent some time simply basking in the fact that we were actually in Italy. We had a little tiny, private balcony off our room that I adored. 

Later that morning we would venture out to explore Rome.....more coming soon. 

Remembering Italy

One of the reasons, I need to write everyday is simply to document. I have the worst memory in the world and I have yet to find a better way to remember it all. 

Since I wasn't writing everyday when we were in Italy, I feel the need to catch up. I wrote everyday in a journal while we were there keeping track of where we went, who we talked to, and most importantly....what we ate. 

I love that my handwriting is in a book. When I blog everyday, I don't always do that. 

As we were going through my Pa's house, I found a few things with my Grammy's handwriting on them, and they are treasures to me. I hope one of my kids or grandkids treasures this one day. 

 I also have handfuls of corks from the wine we drank while we were there. As I look back through my journaling tonight, I'm so excited to make the pictures match the words and re-live it all over again. I have over 675 pictures that I took on my real camera that I haven't even really looked at. 

Here's to knowing that more goodness from Italy is coming here soon. I miss it. Italy was truly magical. It'll be a great story to tell. Re-living it will definitely make me want to go back. I want to take my kids there desperately. A culture, a people, a place that needs to be documented and remembered and re-lived over and over again. 

More on Italy coming soon.......