Month: December 2017

Crafts, Gift Ideas, Tips and Tricks

Date Night At Home Gift Basket

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Well, it’s only 5 days until Christmas! Have you got all your gifts bought? No? Need some inspiration? I hear you. I give you (drumroll please) the romantic date night at home gift basket!

Gift baskets are one of my favorite things to put together and give! See example here.

Gift baskets are wonderful because you can adjust their contents depending on your price range, plus they are just adorable in general and so fun to put together.

This year for Christmas I decided to make this gift basket for Alex’s parents. I wanted the theme to be “romantic date night at home” which was inspired by a floating waterproof Bluetooth speaker that I found for them that I thought would be perfect for their hottub. (Now obviously I know that not every has a hottub, but that is why gift baskets are so great! You can personalize them for whoever you’re giving them to!)

Anywho, here’s what I put in their basket. I just picked things that I thought they would enjoy using on a night at home with eachother. You could definitely adjust these items to fit the personality of who you’re gifting it to, but for the most part I think all of these things are pretty well liked universally so it makes a great gift no matter how well you know the couple. (Side note: this is also a great way to gift a couple instead of each person individually! Two for one! Yay!)

  • Waterproof floating Bluetooth speaker (for hot tub!)
  • A candle (for ambience)
  • Bottle of wine (duh)
  • Matching slippers (to wear to hot tub!)
  • Ingredients for a romantic Italian dinner: pasta, pasta sauce, garlic cloves, garlic flavored olive oil, garlic powder grinder (I like garlic okay!?!)
  • A movie (for snuggle time)
  • Dessert: I chose different varieties of chocolate truffles and pirouette cookies

A Christmas basket and Christmas sign (for holiday cheer!)

I hope this gives you some inspiration! Here are some other ideas of items you could put in your date night gift basket:

  • A blanket
  • Matching robes or pajamas
  • Chocolate covered strawberries
  • Champagne
  • Fresh flowers
  • An album, iTunes gift card, or CD for some romantic tunes
  • Lotion or massage oil

Have fun putting together your gift basket!

Faith

Daily Consecration

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A few weeks ago we had a guest speaker at church. He spoke out of Joshua 3:5

“Then Joshua told the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. “

Now, this is nothing I haven’t heard before. Growing up in church, I know that you’re supposed to consecrate yourself to the Lord. I know you’re supposed to “take up your cross” daily, and “offer your body as a living sacrifice.” I know all this, and yet it was one of those sermons that just made it seem like I was really understanding it for the first time, or at least the first time in a long time.

I’m not going to try to preach to you the same wonderful sermon I heard. Pastor Bruce did an amazing job of that already. You can listen to the full sermon here.

After listening to that sermon I knew that I haven’t been giving myself to the Lord everyday. But I wanted to. So I started being intentional about it. But I wanted to do something realistic and also meaningful. For example, in the past I’ve made it a goal to read my Bible every single day for a year. So for many months I read everyday out of obligation. I knew that some of those days I did not retain one word of what I was reading. And then eventually, I had a super busy day and I forgot to read! So then I started to read less and less because “what’s the point if I’m not going to retain it anyway? I’ve already failed my goal.”

So I decided I can manage 5 minutes a day. I can. I take 5 minutes and intentionally pray. And I take that time to consecrate my day to God. Some days I just sit at the kitchen table and spend those five minutes to completely focused on God and my prayer to him. Other days, I do it while I’m making my breakfast or fixing my bed. And you know what? Some days I forget. And that’s okay!

I have found a few things that work best for me and I encourage you to try different things and find what is best for you. For me, praying out loud is soooooo helpful. It keeps my mind from wandering and helps me realize what’s actually on my heart. Also, it is usually best for me to do it either while I am still in bed I  the morning and haven’t become distracted by other things, or during breakfast when I just sit alone and have a cup of coffee with God.

I can honestly say, the days that I intentionally consecrate myself and my day to God are SO much better than the days I don’t. If I find myself struggling with a particular choice during the day, it is so much easier to make the right choice after I’ve dedicated myself to Him. And the days that I mess up the worst are usually the days I didn’t spend one on one time with Him. Not always, but usually.

Do you consecrate yourself daily? If love to hear what works for you. If you don’t, then I hope you try it. Trust me, it’s a life changer.