Grace Notes

It was New Year’s Eve, 2015.  The lamp in her room could be seen glowing through the windows and spilling through the darkness.  As the last minutes of 2015 slowly ticked away, the coming New Year was not the only thing on her mind…

Hey y’all!  I want to first apologize for making a terrible day 4 out of New Year Blog Week yesterday!  I didn’t think about how the surgery would impact how I was functioning for the rest of the day.  Thank you all so much for your prayers for my recovery; I’m feeling a little better today, so I hope this post is way better and more interesting than yesterday’s ;)

Hey y’all!  Okay, this is going to be a short post, since I had surgery this morning and I’m feeling just plain yucky right now.  But I didn’t want to skip a day completely, so here I am!  These are the things that are on my 2017 goal list right now…

Hey y’all!  It’s time to begin day 3 of New Year Blog Week! :)  I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post, and if you haven’t yet, please leave me a comment and let me know what God did in your life in 2016!  For today’s post, I’d like to take a moment to discuss my favorite posts of 2016 on Sour Cream and Chips, and to link back to them.

Hey y’all!  Welcome to day 2 of Sour Cream and Chip’s first New Year Blog Week!  In this post, I’d like to take some time to review my 2016 goals and talk about the things I did and did not complete on my 2016 list, as well as share some of my extra accomplishments from 2016!

Hey y’all!  Today I’m super-duper excited to announce to you... *drum roll*… New Year Blog Week 2016!!  I came up with it not even 10 minutes ago and I was ecstatic with the idea!  What better way to celebrate the New Year than with a whole week of fun blog posts here on Sour Cream and Chip’s?!

Hey y’all!  It’s just 2 days till Christmas!!  Can you believe it?!   Today I’m wrapping up the last of my gifts, one of which is a card set for my grandma.  I’ve had some cards sitting in my box for a while now, so I figured I would go ahead and make a few more to finish a set of 8.  In no time, I had tied together the little stack and they’re now sitting in a gift bag on a shelf in my room, waiting for another gift to join them before the bag is taped shut and placed under the tree.

Hey y’all!  As Christmas continues to rapidly approach, you’re probably making daily mental lists of what gifts you have already bought and who you are still missing a present for.  “ Who do I still need to buy for?” i s probably THE question of the season. I totally get it; I’ve been doing it too!  But instead of thinking, “this person expects a gift” (because, you know, that’s the truth for most of those on your list), why not take a moment to contemplate “who can I unexpectedly bless this Christmas with a gift?”

Hey y’all!  It’s officially the last month of the year... EEK!  Where did all the time go?!  And Christmas in just a few weeks, I can’t believe.  The majority of our decorations (although there are not really that many of them) went up today, Christmas music has been playing, and this afternoon my mom baked us all some soft, yummy chocolate chip cookies to bring in the wonderful smells and tastes too :)  Oh yes, December most certainly is here!

Hey y’all!  Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is around the bend!  And this coming month I’ve decided that I’m going to do a photo challenge… for real.  I have wanted to do this for SO long, and didn’t want to end the year without trying it out!  I figured that December would be the best time anyway, since there are ever so many lovely Christmas details to photograph!   So I have created my own photo list for the 31 days of December, and I’d like to share it with you!

Happy thanksgiving to my blog readers!!  I’m so thankful for all y’all support, comments, suggestions, and just following my blog this past year!  Especially with my inconsistent blog schedule, I really appreciate all of the encouragement you have given me this past year when it comes to blogging.  Thank you!  My blog has also grown so much this past year – so thank you so much to all of my newer readers!  I wish you all the happiest thanksgiving!!  “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms.” –Psalm 95:2.

Hey y’all!  Recently I came across a chart of prayer prompts on Pinterest, and it inspired me to make my own prayer routine!  These prayer routines are designed to easily help you remember to pray consistently each day for different things.  The idea is: each day when you’re doing routine things (brushing teeth, showering, making your bed, etc.), attach a prayer request to each thing and pray for that request whenever you get to that part of your routine!

Hey y’all!  It’s once again November, and that means Thanksgiving is almost here!!  I didn’t want to go through the month without posting at least once on the topic of gratefulness, so I decided to go ahead and throw together a post with a hodge-podge of what’s been going through my head this season of thanksgiving.

Hey everyone!  Today I’m doing something very casual and fun here on the blog.  Instead of sharing inspiration or something worthwhile (ha), I thought I’d just go a bit crazy and share with you my “bucket list” (aka: my list of very random and sometimes-crazy things that I will most likely never do).  Well actually, most of these aren't THAT bad... Okay, are you ready for some fun? ;)  Here we go!

Hey y’all!  Wow, it has been SO long since I have done a card inspiration post, hasn’t it?!  I’ve been meaning to do a card post all summer, and I kept putting it off; partly because of procrastination, partly because I haven’t taken pictures, and partly because I don’t have cards to take photos of!  But hopefully this post will be the beginning of the end of that! ;)  I’m eager to jump back into card-making mode, and start posting card posts once again for your inspiration :)

Hey y’all!  Some of you early subscribers here on the blog may remember this post last year with helpful tips on Bible study and memorization methods.  If you have a really good memory, you may even remember that one of those study tips was the website and app, “ScriptureTyper.”  When we first tried it out, my brothers both found that it gave them only minimal help, but I kept at it.  Now, about 3-4 years later, ScriptureTyper is my main method of studying.  I’d like to share with you in this post  why ScriptureTyper works for me.

Well y’all, it’s finally time to get back to my regular monthly goals!  We only have a few more months left before the year ends (wow, can you believe that?!) so I want to end strong and get some goals accomplished, and I encourage you to do the same!

Welcome back!  It’s time for part 2 of my interview with Miss Isabella Morganthal!!  I hope y’all enjoyed part one and was encouraged by what she had to share, and I hope that you are further encouraged by what you read again today.  Another big thank you to Bella for joining me for this interview!  *Round of applause* It was tons of fun, Bella, and I really enjoyed it!! :)

Did you know that September is children’s cancer awareness month?  That’s right… I’m not making it up, and it is a real thing.  So many people are unaware of the devastation of childhood cancer, and not much thought is given to this month.  People don’t realize that childhood cancer is very real, children are being diagnosed every day, and children are dying from it every day.  It is very real.

Hey y’all!  How are you?!  I have a really fun interview here for you today, and it’s pretty sweet!  This is the first interview I’ve hosted here on the blog, so congratulations to Miss Isabella Morganthal for being my first interviewee! ;)  Bella is a 19-year old daughter of the King, and God has blessed me with her friendship for several years now.  I am honored that she has agreed to let me interrogate her with my questions :)

Jesus, where do I even begin?  You’ve given me so much more than I need.  You are enough, precious Jesus; you alone are my heart’s desire.  But you’ve showered me with blessings.  Thank you, Jesus.  What else can I say?

Hey y’all!  I thought I’d take a moment to evaluate my new year’s resolutions I made back in January, and share how I’m coming along with them.  It’s always a good idea to evaluate your resolutions every once in a while, so through my own personal evaluations over the past few months, several things have dropped from the list or made their way onto it.   Here’s a quick update on them.

This question still haunts me.  It’s been almost 3 months since I first read it on a *YouVersion plan, and I still think about it almost daily.  What would do if I knew I couldn’t fail?  This was such an overwhelming question, and I didn’t exactly know how to answer it.  This brought up other questions… what are my goals and dreams in life?  What doors could these things possibly open for the gospel’s sake?  Is Christ calling me to step out and do something that I never believed could happen?

Hey y’all!  WHEW!  These past few weeks have been crazy busy and left me in a whirlwind – there is just so much that has gone on!  Two family, birthdays, a mission trip, a doctor appointment, I’m leaving again tomorrow for a week… July is just flying past!  But, I said that I wanted to blog more often this summer, so I wanted to take a few minutes to update you about a part of my life and some lessons I’ve learned through it :)

Recently in my devotions, I have been studying through a Bible plan* on discovering God’s calling on your life.  After reading through the daily exhortations and corresponding Scripture verses, I reflect on it by writing down the things I learned, found encouraging/challenging, or really impacted me.  Through this, I am keeping a journal of what I am discovering about God-given assignments.  I wanted to share my thoughts on this with you, and some excerpts from my journal.

Hey y’all!  It’s officially summer 2016 today!!!  Can you believe it?!  Half the year gone by already!  So…I wanted to quickly hop onto this little nook of mine and wish y’all a VERY relaxing, profitable, and enjoyable summer!  And since summer is here, the summer ministry challenge has officially begun, so make sure you go back a post and check out the details! :)  There’s also a link in that post to my 2015 summer bucket list that has some fun summer ideas to beat summer boredom! ;)  Have a great summer!!

Hey everyone!  It’s time to go swimming and eat lots of ice cream and popsicles, because… summer is about to arrive in 2 days!! :D  Summer is a glorious season filled with the warmth of the sunshine, the coolness of ice cream and lemonade, and the fun of playing the pool!  This season is also great for just relaxing and hanging out, and for those still in school – a break :) But this year, I have a challenge for you!  I am really excited about it, and plan on doing it myself as well!

Hey y’all!   I recently had a suggestion from a friend about doing a blog post on my favorite Bible verses, and I thought it was a GREAT idea so… here’s this post for you gals!  I am hesitant to say these are my “favorite” Bible verses, because honestly, all of them are God-given and SO great! :)  But if I had to pick some of the most-loved, most-pondered verses in my life, these would be on the list!  So, I hope you enjoy!  And DON’T FORGET to comment below and tell me what YOUR favorite verses are! :)

Hey y’all!  Yeah, it’s been a month since I’ve posted on this little nook of mine… yikes!  Hopefully (no promises, but hopefully… ) I’ll have more posts coming this summer.  I’m really excited about the summer for multiple reasons, but you know me; I can’t start without first making some goals! :)  This time I’m doing something a little differently and making a list for the entire season, instead of each month at a time *boohoohoo.* I’ve got a busy summer ahead o’ me and will be very busy at the beginning of July as I’ll be heading out on a mission trip, so I think it’d be best to skip that month’s goal post especially.   Oh yeah, and did you see that I officially turned these monthly goal posts into a series?!  Yay! :D

May is almost here already?!  Sometimes I just can’t believe how fast time flies!  I am reminded of how we are always pressing forward.  The days behind us will stay behind us for eternity.  We can never return to those ancient days – only press onward.  God wants us to be always growing in Him, spending our allotted time on earth carefully and for His glory.  We cannot dwell on past days, only look back and consider if we have been faithful to the Lord’s call.  Looking forward, how can you better serve God with the time He has given you?

This was originally an article I wrote about what God showed me yesterday, but I wanted to go ahead and share it on the blog.  I hope it is encouraging!      Sometimes when life seems great and everything is just going smoothly and without incident, we as Christians seem to be “going great” in our walk with the Lord.   We don’t have a problem reading of God’s promises, like “My grace is sufficient for you,” because life is going great and we don’t “need” the promises then.   We are happy and content, and want to hug everyone.

Hey!  It’s my first blog-versary ever on this little nook of mine!  I’m so excited!! First, I wanted to give a HUGE thank-you to my dear readers!  There are not very many of you, I know, but recently I’ve been inviting more friends to read.  I am really excited about this coming year, and will mention my goals below.  But first, I hope you enjoy these fun facts and tips! :)

Hey y’all!  A few weeks ago a friend and I got together and had a craving for something chocolate.  Being the person I am who hates following instructions, I pulled out some peanut butter and chocolate chips and was determined to make peanut butter cups with them, without a recipe.   So many recipes call for so many different ingredients and a lot of time, and we didn’t have much time.  So, we made these without a recipe in minutes.  And they were perfectly scrumptious.

Hey y’all!  One thing I really love to do is to write in my prayer journal, writing down prayer requests, Bible verses, hand-lettering songs that are prayers, and other things.  Today in my prayer journal, I wrote a list of 10 things that we, as daughters of the King, should be praying for ourselves.  I wanted to share that list with you.

Hey y’all!   2016 is a quarter of the way over, and the beautiful April month has arrived!  April always seems like a month of joy and refreshment and beauty as the earth continues to blossom after the winter.  As the earth blooms out this month, let’s take some time to evaluate the year so far and make some more goals to help us have a productive coming month.

Hey y’all!  Okay, I am convinced that this is the worlds’ easiest refashion DIY project EVER.  It doesn’t even deserve the name “tutorial” because all you need is a t-shirt and a pair of scissors, and about 2 minutes of your time.  Nevertheless, I wanted to show you mine and inspire you to make your own if you’ve never seen how to make one before.

Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ endured unimaginable torture and pain because of our sin.  He was not nailed to a cross because they chose to put him there; he was nailed to a cross because of our sin.   If we had never sinned, he wouldn’t have needed to go to the cross.  And even though we did sin, God could have condemned each of us to eternal punishment.  But he didn’t, because He loved us too much to let us perish without any hope.  He loved us so much that He was willing to send His only Son to earth to be a man and die for us.  Out of love, Jesus went to the cross to give us hope.

Witnessing: do you cringe when you hear this word?  To be perfectly honest with you, I often do!  But I felt like I should write today’s post on witnessing, so get ready to cringe the way through with me! :)  I hope and pray that you learn something in these following thoughts of mine, as I have learned from them greatly!

Hey y’all!  I thought, since the new-year is still fresh, I could do a post on what I learned in 2015.  I encourage you to take a moment to write out your own list, too.  Writing lists always gives me a more thankful and organized spirit.  Why not reflect on what the Lord did this past year?  2015 was a wonderful year and I learned a lot of thing that I would like to share some of them with you.  I learned that…

Hello all! – Just a very quick update today.  I wanted to let you know that I have decided to NOT stick to a blog schedule, therefore ruining one of my New Year resolutions :)  I am not yet at the point of having enough blog topics to produce 2-3 posts a week without throwing together a sloppy “just-have-to-check-it-off-the-list” blog post at least one of those times.  So I am going to keep my post-schedule random for now, and blog just when I feel like I have something to share that is blog-worthy.  I understand that it is hard to check a blog when the posts are random, so if you would like to keep up, please use the Follow by Email.  Hope y'all are having a good 2016 so far!

Hey y’all!  Over the past few months I have acquired quite a bit more supplies and have upgraded my cards to the next level, so to speak.  Unfortunately, I have not taken any card photos of these new-and-improved ones yet, so we’re going to have to just examine another old one for now :)

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s 2016 !!!!!  Praise the LORD for this New Year He has given us!!!  A more consistent blog schedule and a wider variety of blog posts will be coming soon!  If you have any suggestions, please go back to our Before the New Year… post and comment there!  Or, just comment below! :) Have a hard time deciding what New Year Resolutions to do?  This post has some tips! May you be blessed as you seek to live this next year for God’s glory!