A Voting Day Tidbit

It's voting day.  I don't want to get into who the best candidate is or anything like that and after tonight, our opinion really won't matter too much anyways, but I have been thinking about the situation at hand quite a bit today along with pretty much every other person in our nation.  The blogging community has lots to say about it this morning.  I read the following on two different blogs, Good Morning Girls and the Gospel Coalition,  this morning and thought it was a zinger worth sharing...

Politics Is Hell

Imagine your life were an open book.

Every conversation recorded. Every errant word written down. Every gaffe broadcast before all.
What if everything you ever did was fair game?
What if every action and every decision were held up to the severest scrutiny?
What if all your last minute apologies failed to satisfy?
How would you feel to realize someone knew everything about your past? And someone was chronicling everything about your present?
How would you like to face a barrage of questions for every inconsistency in your life?
What a fearful proposition: anything you ever say or ever do can, and often will, be held against you. If an adversary so desired, he could paint an ugly picture of any of us. And without resorting to lies.
It’s a scary thought to think that your whole life could be an open book. With defenses that do not hold, and sorry’s that do not stick, and excuses which only make things worse.
That’s politics.
And that’s the day of judgment without the blood of Christ.
~Kevin DeYoung

 I've often said I admire people for even having the courage to run for political office, whether in Washington or in their home community.  I think it's true that in any leadership role, you are going to find people who are just waiting for you to stumble.  No one is perfect and you can't please everyone all the time, but I admire someone who's willing to take on that role.  It's not for the people-pleasing types like me.  Lord knows I'd be the worst person for the job.  Thank God for people who are willing to take on that role, and God be with whomever it is.  Help us to respect and support them, whether we voted for them or not.  Pray that they make good choices and lead our county in the right direction.  He will be my husband's boss for the next 4 years after all...

And on that note...pray for our military who put their lives on the line to support our great country.  They make tremendous sacrifices for us to enjoy our freedoms.  Don't take your freedoms for granted!


On a completely different, happy note....

I started this challenge yesterday and it's amazing what a difference it's making in my home already.  Just having a burning candle on my counter is a huge gamechanger for my state of mind.  It's a bit of tranquility in a sometimes crazy household.  I love the idea of saying a quick prayer of thanks every time the candle catches my eye.  What a great idea!

Check out the challenge here.  It's so easy and a great way to keep your focus where it needs to be.

Painting, Food, and Food For Thought

I think I finally redeemed myself from my beach towel/ conch shell painting fiasco last night at Quench Your Palette.  My sister and I were the only ones in the class so we got the instructor's attention completely to ourselves.  It was so much fun!

They really should put better lights in there so that when people pose with their paintings, they don't look so washed out.  Oh well...

Maybe the painting went better as a result of the yummy dinner we consumed prior to the class....

I changed up my original plan a bit and made black bean-smothered sweet potato fries instead of using the whole potato.  It was my attempt to speed the baking process along and it worked.  The boys even ate their broccoli last night too.  Of course their sweet potato fries were smothered in ketchup, not black bean salsa, but they did devour their side of seasoned black beans...also dipped in ketchup of course.  

Speaking of food, that apple butter turned out to be delicious.  I could eat it by the spoonful!  Yum!

I found some other interesting things in the blogging world this morning too...

I like this idea of making your home a haven during the holidays.  I definitely want to try out her tips.

The challenge starts off with lighting a large candle in your home every day.  I'm never sorry I lit a candle, especially a festively scented one.  I think this is a challenge I can handle.

I also found this post from Tina to be quite interesting, especially in light of some comments I've heard from people lately.  She explains how we ALL have motivation.  

Source 

I think you probably need to figure out what your dreams are first, which should be easy but I always struggle with that question, then figure out what drives you to those dreams, but I agree that it's within all of our abilities to achieve our dreams.  We just have to channel our energies in the right direction.  

Just some food for thought...

Anyways, today looks like it's going to be another beautiful day.  We're hoping to fit in a bike ride to the bagel shop, a trip to the park, a best body fitness boot camp workout, sriracha corn chowder (don't worry friends that are joining us for dinner, we're going easy on the Sriracha and have sour cream to cut the heat if its still too spicy), trick-or-treating with friends, hopefully a quick little run, and DEFINITELY lots of giggles and snuggles. 

Can't wait to see what our little superheroes think of trick-or-treating!  I hope they have as much fun collecting candy as they had eating it the other night.  Did you know you can face paint with M&Ms?

Blue streaks compliments of that blue M&M he's holding.  That's right friends, they do melt in your hands if you hold on to them long enough.

Colton didn't get quite as crazy but he sure did have a good time eating the M&Ms.  Happy Halloween!