how to alternate skincare

How to Layer Skincare

In August, a magazine reached out wanting to featu

In August, a magazine reached out wanting to feature my DIY’s. From that moment until just a couple of days ago, I have not stopped thinking, “But...why me?” And, “So-and-so deserves this so much more than I do.”

But you know what? I’m not gonna let ME steal my joy over this anymore.

What I know for sure is this: Today there are 7 whole pages in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING MAGAZINE filled with the DIY’s in my home. 😭

Thank you to the Senior Home Editor of @goodhousekeeping, @moniquevaleris who thought the story of our home was worth telling- she did such a beautiful job telling it.

I hope it will help you see the potential of DIY in YOUR homes, friends.

And the next time you get a blessing for what seems (to you) like no good reason at all, and you start to find yourself questioning why, STOP. It doesn’t matter why. You got a blessing. Just go on and enjoy it! God is enjoying it, too.

#wontHEdoit🙌🏾 #Grateful

Oh, and if you get an issue, tag me! That would be so much fun to see you with yours! 😭

And here’s the finished look! I hope you

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY TO MY 3rd man-child, Jaren!! A

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY TO MY 3rd man-child, Jaren!! Always jumping in to help and never complaining- one of the most thoughtful people you’ll ever meet. AND the pics you see on here? He’s usually the one behind the camera. So so proud of my son. 🖤

SAVE this post: I started eating paleo over 5 year

SAVE this post: I started eating paleo over 5 years ago because I lost both my mom and aunt to cancer- a disease that thrives in inflammation. Paleo eating is all about feeding our bodies healthy, anti-inflammatory foods. #sponsored

With all the stress we’ve been through, 2021 is the time for treating our bodies well! You can easily sub better-for-you ingredients, and it doesn’t need to be expensive. @aldiusa has high-quality, affordable paleo choices, and they make it fast and easy.

SWIPE for a screenshotable list of paleo subs you can make right now to FEEL and look your best! Things like:

❌ Refined granulated sugar
✅ Specially Selected 100% Pure Maple Syrup, coconut sugar or raw honey

❌ Processed, gluten-filled sweets, like cookies or doughnuts
✅ Delicious paleo Simply Nature Coconut Cashew Crisps

❌ Vegetable, soybean, corn, safflower, or canola cooking oils (full of inflammatory trans fats, omega 6’s, cancel out omega 3’s, oxidize when heated)
✅ Avocado oil, Coconut oil, Extra virgin olive oil, or Ghee

Center eating around whole, real foods: vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds and organic meats. Have you tried eating a paleo diet? It changed my life!

Head up to my stories to see a few of my @aldiusa favorites - super affordable, high-quality paleo ingredients! #ALDILove

Please understand. Me on my kn

Please understand.

Me on my knees relying on Jesus- the author and finisher of my faith...

Me calling upon the Alpha and Omega....

Me doing what Jesus said to do and casting my cares upon Him...

Me searching scripture for peace and encouragement and landing on the words of Jesus: “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart- I have overcome the world”...

Me doing the hard thing- stopping the spiral and keeping my heart turned to the One who sees the beginning from the end....

Does not equal me turning a blind eye...

Does not mean that I didn’t cry bitterly...

Does not mean that watching people being kindly escorted down the stairs didn’t make me feel jealous...

or witnessing people gently having their eyes flushed with bottles of water didn’t make me draw comparisons....

or seeing protestors being greeted with smiles and selfies didn’t cause the question, “Why do they hate us so much?” to spill from my lips.

It simply means that when things go badly- despite my tears, anger, jealousy and feelings of hopelessness...

that I die to myself and seek the only One who has the final word. I let Him bandage my wounds -so I can go and help bandage someone else’s.

Lord, let the bandaging take place.
John 14:27

Well, at least we clean up good. 😂 Swipe for th

Well, at least we clean up good. 😂 Swipe for the before (of me 😳and the plant 🌱) and the horrifying discovery I made - SCALES on my umbrella plant (thankful it was only one plant!). After googling, I found out they weren’t dirt, but actual CREATURES 😭😩. Alas, it looks like we are good. And best believe- I did it all so save this and follow these steps if you ever get them:

Take plant to the shower (or outside if it’s not freezing outside).
1. Alcohol -wipe down every single leaf and stem with a saturated cotton pad to dissolve and remove- and don’t forget the undersides of the leaves!
2. Repeat until you think you got em all. (I used a new pad for each branch)
3. Mix 1 teaspoon of neem oil, 1 teaspoon of Dawn and 16 oz of filtered or distilled water in a spray bottle
4. Spray down plant with neem oil soap mixture - saturate it! Wipe down every part with a paper towel. Rinse and repeat.

Oh- and I know I could have just thrown it out. But I’m a plant PARENT and plant parenting isn’t always easy and glamorous! PLUS my epic plant mom mama, Glenda Kay would be watching from Heaven with the biggest side eye of all time if I didn’t try to save this plant. 😂 Some of her plants are older than me and outlived her, so when in doubt, I do as my mama did! 🌱 🪴

Saving my stories to plant highlight!

New Year, New Nails 💅🏽 Decided to try a litt

New Year, New Nails 💅🏽 Decided to try a little art with my @oliveandjune Obsessed and HZ and it took me wayyy too long 😂. Sooooo did you guys take down the tree yet? Are you a Jan 1, week 1, or is your tree gonna stay up til 2022? I didn’t want to throw away those dehydrated oranges. You should not keep them more than a year (think sugar, pests, disintegration, moisture, and all the things that could go wrong 😬) and no one is gonna want to eat those dusty things, so I’m sharing what I’m doing with them in stories. See you there!

2020 has been something, hasn’t it? I was talkin

2020 has been something, hasn’t it? I was talking to Rob and I loved what he said: that no matter what, he wouldn’t trade it for anything. Because along with the intense pain it caused so many of us, 2020 exposed things in us that we never would have seen. Things that NEEDED to be seen. In addition to the obvious, things like hidden fears, idols, unmet expectations, darkness and depression, reliance on the temporal, unresolved hurt, insecurities, lack of trust in God and others, and more.

And it exposed the good- strong relationships, the fruit of spiritual growth and maturity, resilience, strength, unbreakable bonds, proximity to the Holy Spirit, redemption, what is significant, and the immeasurable goodness of God.

So you know what? Tonight I’m thanking God for 2020 and what it exposed in me.

Because exposed things can, if bad, be uprooted and thrown out. And if good, unearthed and polished like a treasure.

Good night, 2020. And cheers to you, my friends. Here’s to the close of a decade. May 2021 bring us more exposure. 🖤

THANK YOU so much for your prayers. If I hadn’t

THANK YOU so much for your prayers. If I hadn’t called my dad, Drew, when I did on Christmas Eve, he wouldn’t be alive. He’s lived alone since my mom passed and when he answered the phone I panicked. His speech was extremely slurred and he’s not a drinker. He’d fallen ill 6 days earlier with a “stomach ache” as he called it but didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t want to be a bother and thought it would pass (he only likes helping others and never wants to be helped!) I kept trying to convince him that slurred speech and dark urine is a big deal but he kept blowing me off, saying he was drinking pedialyte. I called my sisters and my youngest took him to the hospital.

Guys, that stomach ache was a kidney stone that got infected and my dad had severe sepsis. Fluid was in his lungs,
his body was beginning to shut down and his white blood cell count was 55,000. He was taken to Intensive care, placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. He was given dialysis-both kidneys were non functioning and his heart was at a 35 EF.

Your prayers are being answered. His heart EF is still at 35% but his white blood cell count keeps going down- he’s not just alive- he’s improving! Since starting dialysis his lungs have less fluid and he was taken out of the coma and is responding to commands- he recognized my sister’s voice on a zoom call.

I THANK God for prompting me to call him when I did. I THANK GOD for my friends and family and THIS COMMUNITY who prayed for my dad. I love you. God knows I just couldn’t lose both my dads in one year, both at Christmas time. The devil is a liar and God is good. ♥️

If you are the praying kind, please pray for my Da

If you are the praying kind, please pray for my Dad, Drew. He is in the hospital fighting to live right now. He raised me as his very own and he literally saved my life. Now I’m praying for God to save his. If you’ll say a prayer for him right now, it would mean the world to me and my sisters. Thank you. 🖤

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