Making Marriage Pop

Being married over nine months definitely does not make me an expert in all things marriage. I feel like I’m learning something new every single day. There’s always some new facet about Zach that I learn, some quality and characteristic unearthed in him that makes me love him even more. Of course we have our days where we miscommunicate, it’s a struggle to get on the same page, and we have our bickering.

But I have found that marriage is one of the most beautiful, hard, precious and wonderful things I have experienced. It has stretched me, grown me and God has used it to show me new sides of his face.

As Zach and I have started sharing and living life together since our wedding day in December, we have found certain things that help us communicate better, stay connected, and growing closer to one another. And while we have only been married 9 months, these are things that we hope to carry on until the Lord takes us home, and things that you can try in your marriage as well.

Here is a short list of some of the things we regularly do in our marriage to keep things popping!

1. Compliment each other. Words of affirmation are near the top for both of our love languages, so it is important for us to build each other up with words. But even if words of affirmation don’t “fill your love tank” it’s always nice to hear a compliment! We have made it a habit in our nightly ritual before we go to bed to give a compliment to the other from the day, and then pray before falling asleep. It’s a little thing, but it means the world. 

2. Kiss for 10 seconds, AT LEAST once a day. Remember how when you were dating it was hard to resist a kiss from your special someone? Well keep those flames alive in your marriage and give your spouse a smooch they’ll remember all throughout the day! Really, we all have ten seconds, and it can draw your hearts together.

3. Set aside a date night every week. Just because you are married does not mean you stop dating or pursuing each other. The opposite should be true! We need to be studying our spouses, continuing to learn and pursue their hearts. Your date doesn’t have to be extravagant, but set aside that intentional time with each other.

4. Play together. Whether it’s your favorite board game (ours is Scrabble), taking a hike (we love the mountains!), walking around town, or grabbing some water guns and having an all out water fight, don’t forget how to play with your spouse. Don’t forget how to laugh and have fun with each other. Laughter is some of the best medicine around, especially for marriage!

5. Grow together. Find something that you both can learn together! Currently, Zach and I are going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and learning how to be good stewards of our money. Whether it’s something like that, or reading through a book together, or listening to something together, find time to grow together individually and as a couple.

6. Ask each other questions.  Every now and then Zach and I will ask each other questions. Things like “how can I love you better?” and “what’s one thing I can do for you this week that will really mean a lot to you?” Learning to communicate is so vital and important, and you need to check up on your relationship every once in a while to get on the same page, and be honest with one another.

7. Set a goal together and go after it! I love goals. I love to set them, and I love to reach them (who doesn’t?)! When I married Zach, I was used to setting goals for myself, but since we got married we have learned that it is important to dream together and set goals together! So every few months we sit down over coffee and write out our dreams and goals. We dream big, and we also set goals realistically. It could be as simple as our goal of going to an apple orchard this fall to pick apples, or all the way up to something like paying off a credit card entirely. Goals and dreams are important to set and reach together, just as much as individually!

There you have it, just a few of the points that I have picked up on over the past nine months in our marriage. I feel so incredibly blessed by the man God brought me to marry, and I am thankful for the relationship that we have. Learn to appreciate what God has given you in your spouse, and build them up in that!

Take some of these ideas and try them yourself! And I want to hear from you, dear reader! What’s one of your marriage tips?

5 Meal Planning Tips

In the world of nutrition, meal planning is king. Well, in some respects anyway. You know what they say, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." While I think that phrase can be somewhat overused, it does ring true, and I have found that especially true with nutrition.

Any time that I just try to "wing it" with my nutrition, I fall flat on my face, and hard. For me, going to the grocery store without a plan always ends up with some disastrous consequences- like a moldy bag of broccoli in my veggie drawer a week later. It didn't even stand a chance, because I forgot about it.

But! There is hope. Meal planning is a lot easier than you may think, and it will help save you time, money, heartache, and that poor bag of forgotten broccoli wedged into your dusty veggie drawer. So how do you do it, you ask? Let me give you five simple tips to help you on your way to become a meal planning king or queen!

1. Always write it down! This may seem pretty common sense when you are making a plan, but, when we get in a hurry, things can slip by the wayside. Get a pen and paper, write down every day of the week, and write down a grocery shopping list at the same time. You can even get all techie and do yours on the computer, but I have found that good ol' pen and paper work just fine for me.

2. Plan for your day, but also be flexible. As mentioned before, you want to have a plan going into your week of what you want to buy, prepare and eat. But, that being said, life does happen. Don't freak out! If your great grandma comes into town and wants to have dinner out with you, make room for it in your plan. Shift things around accordingly, and just get on with it from there! You can shift days around, meals, etc. Be flexible, but also remember to use what you bought!

3. Shop and eat with the seasons in mind.  Doing this is going to give you the freshest ingredients to cook with, and it will most likely save you money because the produce that is in season is going to be cheaper than say buying strawberries in the dead of winter. For instance, fall brings about tons of delicious squash options...find a great squash recipe and try it out!

4. Prep your food! Now that you have your plan written down, be sure that you actually get your food ready for the week! I take an hour or so every week and put on some good music, a podcast or movie and get all that I can prepped for the week. That means cutting, peeling, slicing, etc. I also take the time to pre-portion things like carrots, broccoli, spinach, and other fruits that can be prepared ahead of time without browning so that I have fast, healthy snack options ready to grab and go!

5. Speaking of snacks...have a plan for those too! You don't have to write down a different snack for every single day, but have a general idea of what healthy snacks you want to have on hand for the week, shop for it, and prep it so they are ready! Going to do red peppers and hummus? Ziploc baggies can be your best friend to put those pepper slices in, and you can get a small tupperware to portion out your hummus. Voila! Healthy snacks abound!

So there you go, there are five of my top tips to get your started on your meal planning journey. Stuck and need a recipe? Don't be afraid to reach out and ask me for some recipes! I have some great ones on my blog, as well as on hand, and I love to share!

Let me hear from you...what's YOUR meal planning tip that wasn't shared here? 

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

One of my favorite crunchy veggies to snack on has to be red bell peppers! Get a little hummus in there, and you're set! But, red bell peppers are not only for snacking. You can make a great dinner and meal with these vibrant, red beauties, and it's a lot simpler than you would think.

I've made several variations of stuffed bell peppers, but this has to be one of my favorite so far. It's simple, and I love the combination of veggies that I used. That being said, you can also switch up your stuffing to whatever you want! Really it is quite versatile, and you can substitute different veggies for the ones your family likes.

Let's take a look at this simple, healthy recipe!

Ingredients (makes 4 servings)
2 red bell peppers
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 medium to large zucchini, chopped small
1 onion, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp cooking oil
Pepper, paprika, garlic powder and basil to taste
1 cup of parmesan, mozzarella, or pepper jack cheese (shredded)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the tops off of your bell peppers, remove the insides and slice in half long ways.
3. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.
4. While peppers are in the oven, heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
5. Once the oil is hot, add in your chopped onions and sautee until slightly translucent. Add your garlic, sautee for one minute.
6. Add your 1/2 lb of ground turkey, season lightly with pepper, paprika, garlic powder and a few small pinches of basil. Cook until browned and cooked through.
7. Add in your chopped zucchini, cook until slightly soft (about 5 minutes).
8. Divide up between the bell peppers, top with your cheese.
9. Cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese starts to melt and brown/bubble.
10. Enjoy! You can even top it with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, and your favorite hot sauce. Yum!

Some other ways that you can switch this up, you can add in cooked quinoa, brown rice, chopped green peppers, shredded carrots, the possibilities are endless!

The Studio App Tutorial

One of my favorite apps that I use to help create some of my Instagram and Facebook posts is Studio. It's a free app and it has a wide variety of graphics that you can customize yourself. You can create to your hearts content!

What I'm going to do is walk you through is just a simple quote picture, but you can create your own using your own Camera or Picture Library on your phone for the background picture! There are so many different things you can do for your pictures, but here's just a simple look at what I do.

1. Open the Studio App!

2. Click the green plus button to create a new picture.

3. Select to create a blank canvas.

4. Click the upper left hand corner button called "Layers."

5. Click "Add overlay."

6. Here is where all of your graphics are. You will click this button to add anything to your picture. 

7.To give your canvas background a color, I typically select a square and choose the color of my choice.

8. Click the "color" button at the bottom to scroll through and find the color you want. 

9. For this picture, I selected a blue. To enlarge or shrink the square, simply pinch the square and make it bigger or smaller. 

10. Click your layers button again and this time find the "Flowers" graphics. These graphics are all free, but you have to add them to your app by "shopping" and selecting the graphic design sets you want to use on your pictures. There are tons of great ones!

11. Select which flower pieces you want to use, and enlarge or shrink them as we did for the square.

12. This is one of my favorite parts of Studio, the "fade" bar. Toggle this little circle and you can keep your graphic completely bold, or you can fade the color so it's a lighter shade and a little see through. I made this one lighter. 

13. Next, we are adding in our text! Click on the layers tab, and find which fonts you like best. For each different word, I went back and selected a new font.

14. You will adjust their size the same as you did for the square and flowers. Drag them around the screen to your desired placement.

15. Next I am adding lines for a visual break between each word. Go back to the layers button.

16. Find the lines tab, and select your choice. Now, to make it simple on yourself, you can duplicate the line exactly to the size you want by adjusting your first line, then clicking the layer button. You will see to the left of your line "layer" it will say "Edit." Click edit and you will find a choice to "duplicate layer." You can also delete layers from this point.

17. Once you are satisfied with your placement, you will go to the upper right hand corner and select "finish." Then you will hit the "publish" button.

18. Click each media drive you want to save your picture to. Typically I save it just to my camera roll, but you can upload it to any platform you desire.

And...tada! You have a fun, simple quote put together through the Studio App. 

What is your favorite picture app to use? Comment below with your favorites, I love finding new ones!