Show Us Your Life: Working Mama

Two linked up days in a row!

I'm linking up today with Kelly's Korner. Her Friday series "Show Us Your Life" features working mom bloggers, so I'm joining in the fun.

Hailey Erickson Photography
Hi, I'm Emily and thanks for stopping by! As a mom who works outside of the home, I have a lot of encouragement from my sweet friends and family, not the least of which is my wonderful husband who talks me down off the ledge when I get overwhelmed. In particular I'm reminded of the second Monday of January (the first one was a holiday) when I rolled over in bed and said, "I think I'm just going to take a vacation day and stay home." He reminded me that if I did it once, it would be too easy to do it every other Monday, and pretty soon I'd be out of vacation days.

When he's right, he's right, you know.

I should mention that this discussion took place at 4:30 AM, which is when I start my day. I commute across DFW which takes right at an hour one way. I'm in the office super early so I can get back home to my sweet, almost 1-year-old boy.

One of the sacrifices of working this schedule is being there in the morning to see my boy when he wakes up. He is always so, so happy in the morning, which I love. But I'm there by 5 to pick him up in the afternoon, so I get a full evening to play with him. It's my absolute joy, and at 4 PM I'm usually found sprinting to my car to get home. My favorite reason to work this schedule (9 hour days) is that I'm off every other Friday. It's worth it.

Some where in the middle of wifery, child-rearing, and working, we are heavily involved in serving the Lord through our church. That's our family here in our town, so we wouldn't have it any other way. I constantly find my nose in a book, even if it's just my default favorite Pride and Prejudice. And like other ladies, I take great pleasure in making my home a home and eating cookie dough. I excel at that last part, which is why I count my points.

So there you have it--my working-mother-life in a nutshell.

VIA

I found this image not long after I went back to work from maternity leave. It rings so true. I'm fairly convinced that I can do anything I want. I have so many great encouragers cheering me along my way, and by the strength of the Lord, I'm making it {with a lot of prayer, very little sleep, and one diet coke a day.} But one thing I am always reminding myself is although I can do it all, I should not do it all. That helps me guard the precious time I have with my husband and son.

Speaking of precious time, I'm off to enjoy my Friday at home and a fun Valentine's Day weekend with my guys. Have a great weekend!

Our Love Story.

I love celebrating love in the month of February. It's just so sweet. I've seen several other bloggers link up at From Mrs. to Mama to share their love stories. I thought it was so appropriate for this week, so here we go.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

Mr. G and I've been together since December, 2003. He asked me out on our first date the night before Thanksgiving that year. He took me to a Michael W. Smith Christmas concert. It was awesome. So that makes 9 years. WOW!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

We met through our mutual friend Amy, who went to church with Mr. G and was the sister of my college friend Sherry. She had told me about him for a while and finally arranged an Aggie football watching party so we could meet up. {Note: If you have single friends and you keep telling them, "Oh you really need to meet so-and-so," it's a good idea to follow through with that. It was a success in this situation.}

We exchanged e-mails for a while, spent long nights on the phone, dated from about 50 miles apart, and got engaged on February 11, 2005. It was one of the happiest times in our lives, this falling in love. Random: we discovered that we lived in dorms right next to each other in rooms that faced each other during our sophomore year of college. We even had mutual friends, but never met at school. The year we lived literally yards from one another was the year Bonfire fell, and there were 43,000 students enrolled at A&M.

3. If married, how long have you been married?

We married on July 16, 2005, so I've been Mrs. Gentry for 6 and a half years.

Pre-digital wedding photos.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?

We were married in my hometown at First Baptist. The reception followed on the campus of our local college in the Arts and Sciences Center. My cake was pink, and I do mean pink.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

We're pretty normal. Nothing more exotic that sweetie or babe around our house.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He loves the Lord. He is thoughtful, as in, his opinions are always well thought out, as well as in general he's just thoughtful toward me. He is so kind and an awesome dad. And he does my math for me, which is why there are 5 things listed here.


7. Tell us how he proposed?

He proposed 3 days before Valentine's Day. I was completely unsuspecting. After picking me up in a limo, we were carried to the exact spot where he first told me he loved me at Thanksgiving Square in downtown Dallas. It was wonderful. It was perfect.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

I would say he's a "get whatever I am hinting about kinda guy," because he is smart. But I also usually receive flowers.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Since there are not many beaches around north Texas, most nights I'm a pop in a movie kinda girl. But I would take the beach over the mountains any day of the year.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

We love vacationing. I mean, who doesn't? But really, I'm looking forward to retiring and spend all day, every day with him. (Poor Mr. G.) The first day back at work from vacation, I'm always missing him.


11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

This Valentine's Day, his parents are coming to keep our sweet boy while we run to the restaurant that's become our Valentine's Day tradition. Nothing fancy, no reservations required, but we eat there every year. Last year we were only 12 days out from meeting our boy. This time of year has become especially dear to us now.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

I've dropped a few not-so-subtle hints. We'll see if he picked up on them. He's getting a golf bag because his not-cart one (not sure what it's called) broke. (Shhhh. Don't tell. And I only know the cart bag is called a cart bag because he asked for it for Christmas a couple of years ago.)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Place the Lord at the center of your marriage. He is love. When you are focused on Him, your behavior toward your significant other (and everyone!) is more grace-filled and understanding.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Happy Pink Cookies.

I love to bake this time of year, but I pretty much only stick to pink cookies. The chocolate chip bar cookies I made over the weekend were just to give some chocolate variety. But those pink cookies? They are delicious! And strawberry! And made from every woman's secret homemaking weapon...the boxed cake mix.


You've probably had these before. They taste great from a chocolate cake mix, but my favorite is strawberry, which is what those happy pink cookies all in a row up there are made from. If you use a cherry cake mix, they taste similar to Collin Street Bakery cherry ice box cookies (that's my hometown, world-famous bakery), and they're also pink.

{Yay, pink.}

Cake Mix Cookies
1 (18.25 oz.) box of your preferred flavor cake mix
1 egg
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. I used parchment for the first time ever to bake these, and I wanted to hug the genius who invented it. They bake for around 15 minutes. Mine made about 2 dozen so I grabbed a second box and made more.

An often forgotten about, super easy, perfect for Valentine's Day recipe to make. YUM.

Weekending, one day late.

Like I mentioned on Thursday, Jack spent the weekend with my parents since we were busy with D-Now this past weekend. Due to that fact, I took a planned vacation day yesterday to spend time with him. We sat in the floor and rolled a ball, grocery shopped, ordered a 1st birthday cake (oh my), and mailed birthday invitations. Oh, and we sang "If You're Happy and You Know It." He has the clapping part down, which is adorable.

But back to the weekend! I also took off early on Friday to pack up my little Valentine and meet my mom to drop him off.


I spent a good part of the evening baking up a storm. Strawberry cookies and chocolate chip bar cookies to drop off at the home where my seniors were spending the weekend. Banana bread to drop by the home of some new parents. I accidentally didn't ever sign up to take supper by, but I thought banana bread for snacking would be a nice treat.



We spent the rest of the weekend chasing teenagers around. The bulk of Saturday was spent at a service project where the students painted two hallways at a night shelter. In fact, our 80+ students were spread out all over DFW doing all sorts of service projects. It was a great weekend, not just because of their service, but for the commitments they made to the Lord through the True Love Waits movement.

Sunday was of course the Super Bowl where I chased our kiddo around and visited with friends. I didn't see Gisele on TV, and I don't remember any great commercials. Who even played? But I had fun regardless.

I have a three day work week before my Friday off. It's sure to be hectic, but c'est la vie!

D.E.A.R.

via
We didn't call it drop everything and read time at my elementary school, but I wish we had because I'm a sucker for cutesy acronymns. I did a lot of reading, regardless. My first chapter books were the Little House series, and I still remember my first grade teacher marching me down to the library to check out the first one because I gone through all of her readers. Right now I'm going through Pride and Prejudice again because it's my default. (Jane has just found out that Caroline and Mr. Darcy have convinced Mr. Bingley to go back to town. So tragic.) I need something new. That's where you come in!

What are you reading, and do you recommend it?

Today is a day for list making.

I have something like 4 lists going right now: housework, packing, to-do, plus this one. (See how I just included a list of lists in the count of lists? OOC.) This weekend is Disciple Now at our church, and while we're not hosting kids at our home this year, we'll be heavily involved in driving them around, delivering food, and all kinds of fun things. Really, there is no telling what will happen when teenagers are involved.

Last year, I was in active labor when I showed up for the Friday night events, then delivered a baby the next day. D-Now is a few weeks earlier this year, but nonetheless it's giving me waves of nostalgia. This weekend Jack is visiting my parents (hence, the packing list) so Mr. G and I are free to run around and be out late for all the fun stuff. I know my boy will be in good hands, but I will miss him!

Lacking a good transition, I submit unto you a list of random Thursday thoughts/items:

• If you use Google Reader (and you probably already know this), you can hit the "j" key to skip down to the next post in your list. You can hit "k" to jump back up. I was pondering yesterday how much I enjoy this feature because it allows you to jump quickly through a blog post that is a. too long, b. doesn't apply to you on this day, or c. boring. If you continue to hit "j" for the same blog everyday, it might be time to edit your subscriptions. (This is not an invitation to unsubscribe from me, however. Please and thank you?)


• I am receiving spam text messages. As much as I would love to claim my $100 reward certificate from the anonymous 1-800 number in the most recent text I received, somehow I don't feel like that will end well. I'm on the national do not call list, so I'm not sure what else to do. Suggestions are welcome.


• Speaking of texting, data, and the like, I achieved top 5% status of AT&T's data usage in January. While I think this is fairly impressive, AT&T does not. I have unlimited data, but at reduced speeds if I hit that threshold again. Surely I'm not in a class all to myself. Are you also the 5%?


• I went to the Gilt City Warehouse Sale last weekend with my mom. It stressed me out and reminded me of why I pay retail and also enjoy online shopping so much. I don't do well in snatchy grabby situations, even when there are designer goods at stake, however I did score a cute handbag in this particular instance.

That's all I've got. Have a great Thursday!

Marriage Matters Month & Printable

This month being February and traditionally a month of love, our church is kicking off a series on Marriage Matters. God blesses me so much through B, so I love this. We just got our monthly church newsletter and in it are suggested ideas for couples to think about strengthening their marriage. Included are reminiscing when you first fell in love, ideas to appreciate your spouse, planning a date for V-Day, etc. These kinds of things are my jam, and thus, I'm terribly, terribly excited.

{Apologies in advance to Mr. G for my forthcoming cheesiness.}

One of the things mentioned to do were to list the reasons "I love you because..." This immediately reminded me of Sarah's super cute blog that I found after following her on Twitter.




via Life Sweet Life
Sarah has provided a free printable here for you to create your very own "I love you because" message board! She placed it out there in multiple colors, so surely there is one for any decor. This idea is brilliant for your February love notes, and perfect to keep out all year round. You print it out, frame it, and write on the glass with a dry erase marker. Super easy!

As for me, I'm printing out the grey one for a gaudy gold frame (it's what I do best) near the door we go in and out of most. Three cheers for a simple, cute, and fun way to help build up our spouses. Thanks, Sarah!