{Mr. Frank & Riley – 2001 – I love that smile!}

Being at his funeral made me think about what’s really important in life.  It caused me to evaluate my priorities and gave new meaning to any New Years resolutions I was thinking about attempting.  It brought me back to what’s important to me:  loving and following Jesus and trying to be more like him, loving my family well, and investing in relationships – really loving the people God’s put in my life.

It also made me think about my grandmother a lot – probably because I had just days before come across a letter she had written me during the summer of 1997 while I was working as a summer missionary in East St. Louis, Illinois.  I cried and cried after I read it because I loved her so much, and it made me miss her terribly.  She was a feisty lady with a lot of spunk and also a lot of love for her family.  She, too, loved Jesus very much.  In her letter, she told me about being in the hospital with her “skippy” heart and how her friend Corliss had moved to Huntsville – of all things.  She also said this:

Katie, you can’t begin to know how very proud I am of you.  You are “filling the shoes” that I would even yet like to be filling.  To cause 1 soul to be saved is worth a whole lifetime.  And I know that with your sweet, happy and loving personality you are a positive influence on leading others spiritually.  I am praying for you and the other missionaries  as well as for those you are casting a Christian influence upon.  How glad I am that you can be doing what I would have so much liked to have done.

And then she signed it with an underlined I Love You.  And I know she did.

{My grandmother, Hazel, holding me – 1978}

{This picture was taken the last time I saw my Grandmother.  She had Alzheimer’s, but she recognized me & my sister.  It was truly a miracle & I’ll never forget it.}

{The day she met Riley – I love that we have these pictures since he doesn’t remember her (2001) – please excuse that awful haircut!}

I guess the reason I’m writing this post (besides the chance to go down “memory lane”) is to remind myself that how we spend our days matters.  One day, God willing, I’ll be a grandmother and then maybe even a great-grandmother.  The way I live my life doesn’t just impact and affect me.  It shapes my children and their children and so on.  The decisions I make are important & will last for generations to come.  I’m so thankful f or these two wonderful grandparents & the legacies that they left for our family.  We are blessed because of their faithfulness!

                          

I just tried steel cut oats for the first time today & thought I’d share my favorite recipe for a warm breakfast on a cold day.

1/4 cup Steel Cut Oats, cooked (follow package instructions)

2 tsp. brown sugar

3 Tbsp. dried cranberries

2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir & enjoy!

{340 calories}

                          

Happy birthday, Cole!  We love you SO MUCH & are so proud of you!  You are a JOY and one of God’s greatest gifts to us.  We hope you have a lot of fun being nine!

                          

Before & After:

They were really good, and 3 out of the 5 of us liked them (I’m still working on those other two!).  I warmed up the leftovers the next day and ate them with a baked sweet potato (one of my favorites!).

I also cooked THIS RECIPE, which called for quinoa – another first for me.  I’ve been hearing a lot about quinoa, so I was excited about giving it a try.  It was really good – kind of like slightly crunchy rice.  I seasoned mine with an orange juice/honey/cilantro mixture, so it was a little sweet.  It was great paired with the spicier shrimp.  Another before & after . . .

I also baked a batch of THESE muffins that I’ve posted about before.  They’re great to keep in the fridge for a grab & go breakfast (although I prefer mine warmed and eaten slowly with a cup of hot tea).

Today I tried KALE CHIPS for the first time.  I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical, but they were good!  I seasoned mine with a little bit of olive oil, sea salt, and a sprinkle of shredded parmesan cheese.

After I ate the kale chips, I started craving something sweet (which is no surprise whatsoever), and I really wanted to eat a whole jar of Nutella.  I refrained, however, and baked some of these no flour, no sugar, no dairy COOKIES.  Again, I was a little skeptical, but I was pleasantly surprised!  Brad even ate one and said they were pretty good.

I’ve been keeping up with what I eat during the day using the MyFitnessPal App on my phone (thank you, Kaitlyn!).  I also started a Couch to 5K program (again, great phone app) on New Year’s Day, and I’m on week two.  So far, so good!  I’ve never even come close to being a runner, but I’m starting to believe that I might actually be able to eventually run a 5K and not die at the end!  I’m planning to run the Opening Eyes to Autism 5K on April 13th downtown.

So, there you go.  I’m sure I’ll get off track from time to time and eat 1/2 a sleeve of cookie dough, but it’s more of an effort than I’ve been making, and I’m actually pretty excited about it!  Got any great clean recipes?  Feel free to share!

                          

February brought a visit from Grandma and Grandaddy, a letter from Umalu in Uganda, more walks in the woods, my continued obsession with birds, and Riley’s 10th birthday.  And more praying about a possible move . . .

In March there was a trip to Memphis which led to a lot of praying about moving back.  All of that led to many reminders about trusting God & remembering His goodness and faithfulness.  We continued to adjust to being a family of five.

We couldn’t take many months like April.  It was FILLED with getting our house ready to sell.  We were tired physically & emotionally.  We enjoyed many a Sonic Happy Hour, the boys soaked up time with their neighborhood friends, & we got to enjoy the baby birds that hatched in our neighbor’s front door wreath!

May was pretty crazy, too.  We finished getting the house ready to sell, told our church family we were moving back to Memphis, and the house went on the market & sold in 12 days.  Our local Starbucks hosted a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, and we were excited to participate.  It was also the beginning of the locust invasion (SO loud & annoying!).

At the end of May I went to Haiti and came back wrecked in early June.  We immediately left for our annual family beach trip & had fun watching Yohannes experience the sand and ocean for the first time.  We took a family trip to Memphis, got to see the house God provided for us, and went to a Redbirds game where we won a free pizza!

July was filled with packing and packing and packing.  I also got to meet my Australian blog friend, Sharen (and her husband, Dave).  She was even more fabulous in person!  Then we packed all our stuff into a big, yellow truck and said goodbye …. and I cried a lot …. but was also excited about our new adventure.

The first day of August was move-in day, and we spent the month getting settled into our new home and Midtown.  Riley and Cole started school at Snowden (really tough first day but eventually got much better), and Yohannes started preschool.  My mom came to visit, we spent a lot of time at the local parks & took a trip to the zoo.

In September we celebrated Yohannes’s one year anniversary of being home!  Our friend, Elissa, came to visit for Labor Day & we rode the trolley downtown and explored.  I’m pretty sure that was also the month I got addicted to Pinterest & decided to get all crafty and stuff.  We had an interest meeting for Mercy Hill Church and began our first Missional Community group the following week.

We soaked up our amazing front porch and spending time outside while the weather was still nice in October.  We also hosted a Red Earth Trading Co. house party and did Halloween.  Brad’s goatee continued to get more and more “epic” (as many people have said), and I tried to actually make some of the stuff I had “pinned” on Pinterest.

In November we celebrated Yohannes’s 5th birthday with a Cars party at the park with a few close friends, I relaunched my newly rebranded photography business, and we visited family in Alabama for Thanksgiving.

And finally in December we were featured in Show Hope’s Miracles magazine, we enjoyed decorating the house for Christmas, Yohannes participated in his first preschool Christmas program, and we did the annual family Christmas card photo extravaganza.  We also celebrated God’s goodness and faithfulness as we watched our Missional Community group continue to grow in many different ways.  We drove back to Alabama to spend Christmas with our families, and unfortunately drove back home afterward with a sick child and a “throw up bowl” …. you know, just in case.  (Thankfully he’s medicated now and recovering nicely).

2011 was a BUSY, and at times HARD year …. but it’s been really, really good, too.  We’ve been stretched and strengthened in ways we hadn’t experienced before, and God has been so incredibly gracious and faithful to our family.  We are thankful to Him for ALL His gifts …. when we could see them and appreciate them in the moment AND when we couldn’t see them yet but got to experience them later.

HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Dunlaps!  Let’s go 2012!

                          

Well, me, of course!

Brad’s parents had some in their basement & I told them that’s all I wanted for Christmas.  I also ordered some baker’s twine from Pick Your Plum right before Christmas, and it was waiting for me when we got home from visiting family in Alabama.  Put all of that together with the huge chalkboard I bought yesterday at a local thrift store & I’m one happy girl!

I’m planning to use the chalkboard mainly for photography shoots, but I’m also trying to figure out a good spot for it in our house for personal use.  I’ll mostly  use the twine for packaging gifts and photo orders, and the crates and jars will be used decoratively here and there in our house.

Brad probably thought I was crazy lying on the front porch taking these pictures yesterday, but I just thought they were asking for a little photo session (hee hee!).

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

                          

I bought 14 inch foam wreath forms, yarn, felt & felted wool for this project and also used some good scissors and my trusty hot glue gun.  I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped (until I thought I would go cross-eyed) the yarn around the form, pulling it taut along the way.  (I used a dot of hot glue at the beginning and end of the process to hold the yarn in place).

I, then, began making lots and lots of flowers using both felt and felted wool.  To make these, I cut a square (approximately 4 or 5 inches) and then trimmed away the edges and corners, making a circle.  I cut the circle into a spiral and cut scallops into the outer edge of some of the spirals.  To form each flower, I began rolling the spiral starting with the outside, pointy part.  I rolled until I got to the center, squeezed out a big blob of hot glue on the center circle, and pressed the rolled up flower into the hot glue.  I did that again and again and again until I had the number of flowers I wanted, and then I glued them directly onto the yarn-covered wreath.

And then I stood back and smiled at the finished product!

And in closing, have you fellow crafty friends seen THIS SITE?  I showed it to Brad and he thought it was stupid; however I kept cracking up!  I think these two sum up this little project well:

So, if you got a handmade yarn-wrapped wreath from me this year, I hope you still like it next month!