Living a life that is More than Useless

From a young age my parents have taught me about living life in ministry. As a family, we left a life in an up and coming suburb of Indianapolis to move to the area known by law enforcement as the sex offender capital of Indianapolis. I  went from a top 10 Indiana school district to going to a 20 student school with an assortment of children who could not succeed in public schools, mostly due to the such poor rated school district. We went from living life in quiet confines of suburbia to learning to live life in the most dangerous neighborhood in Indianapolis.

At the age of 13 my life got turned up side down.  We made the move to downtown Indianapolis and all I had known about the safety and stability of our every day life was shaken. I think though looking back on my life this has become a defining moment/era for me. All that I was comfortable with was taken away and I was pushed out of my comfort zone. Knowing now that my parents did this for so much more than just the purpose of getting a bigger house. For them it was moving to the city to live among those they were doing ministry with. We moved in hopes of being a light.

My parents gave up a lot in that time. My dad went from working at a corporation to working at a homeless shelter. My mom began working for the church. They both took on leading the school and trying to help students with no motivation be motivate for an education. They took on the role of foster parenting in this time as well. With each of these, they taught me and my siblings to be light in any circumstance that we were put in.

For me this meant:

* Getting lice on a regular basis because we were taught that anyone was welcome in our cars, home and classrooms no matter what little critters were found in their hair.
* Giving up the extras and normalcy of high school to go to the church school
*Befriending friends who were really broken- struggling with their sexuality, drug use, abuse and neglect.
* Using my senior year to finish high school part time and teach Kindergarten part time to a child who suffered from cognitive delays and emotional disabilities.
* Forgiving foster sisters who lied, stole, threatened and physically harmed me.
* teaching Sunday school to kids only a couple years younger than me.
* Learning to live in community at a church in the heart of the city. Preparing and sharing meals with the drug users, prostitutes, homeless, fatherless, broken and assortment of others who came in the door.
* Giving up family time and resources to ensure that families in the church could remain together.


This is just a small picture of how my parents taught me what ministry was. They taught me that ministry is really in the being and doing. It is being the hands and feet of Jesus. Loving the broken because in reality we are the broken too.

This is the biggest reason I have chosen the career I have chosen and why I choose to teach Sunday School every Sunday to a room full of chatty little girls. This is what ministry looks like in my life right now. Being the hands and feet of Jesus where he has me right now. Showing love and compassion to my chatty Sunday School girls, my coworkers, my employees and any one else I do life with on a daily basis. Right now this is my mission field.

3 fun ways to use burlap in crafting

RichCraft has some great products to use for crafting including their Burlap Table Runner. It is really great quality burlap that is sewn on both sides to keep it from fraying. I cannot wait to use mine for our Thanksgiving table setting. Seeing how you get 10 yards and I only need about 3 yards for our table,  I decided to try and find some other craft ideas. Here are three of my favorites I found when searching Pinterest:

1. Burlap Roses

2. DIY State Love Art

3. Burlap Wreath

*I recieved this product at a discount for an honest review. All opinions given are completely my own. 

PCOS & Type 2 Diabetes- My journey starts.

Last month I got some hard news from my doctor. After an exam and some blood work, the doctor diagnosed me with PCOS and type 2 diabetes. As someone who has never had health problems this came as hard news to me. I had never even heard of PCOS and in my mind Diabetes was an "old people" disease. I have gone through weeks of denial.

This is not who I am..... I am not Gabby with PCOS and Diabetes. Yes, I haven't made the best choices in eating right and exercising but I AM Healthy. These are the thoughts racing my mind lately.


But I have finally come to grips with it and am ready to move forward to a healthier life. This will be a journey.  Getting to a healthy place with PCOS means a complete life change. It is not going to be easy and I am not even sure I know what all it entails right now but I am going to learn. It is my goal to document the journey here on this blog. The ups, the downs and the plateaus.

(Courtesy of mayoclinic.org)

Words of Wisdom....

"Come to work not to work, come to work to be part of the purpose." 
- Anonymous

 This is a quote that has spoken volumes to me this week. This rings true for me in my profession, in my personal life and with working with my girls in Sunday school.  I need to remember the purpose behind each of these and not get weighed down in the "work" of it.

lately

I feel as if I haven't written on here in a while but honestly, I just have not felt up to it. These last couple months have been hard. I am hanging on to the words of James 1:2-4...

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Take me out to the Ball Game....

This weekend my dad had the fun idea to get all of my little sibs in their baseball/softball uniforms and have a little photo shoot. It was fun spending time at the baseball field taking pics of my family and our time ended with a little home run derby competition which was super fun. So get ready because here is a picture overload of a few of my favorite shots!

6 different team = 6 crazy different schedules this season

Oh Timmy, he didn't play baseball this year and you could often find him on the bleachers reading a book.

1st time ever playing softball and Taylor rocked the pitchers mound this season. 

These two represented their high school on the baseball and softball teams. I am so proud of them and their good attitudes through all the "politics" of Highschool sports!

Taylor's team were the Saints as in Saint Bernards. Taylor came with her own mascot!!

Oh and P.S. Timmy won the SCIENCE FAIR! 

The family genius did an awesome science fair project and won first place for the whole school.

May Cara Box Swap!!

This month I joined the Cara Box Swap hosted by Kaitlyn at Wifessionals.

I got paired with two very lovely ladies Rebecca & Andi. The theme this month was "Let's Get Regional". The idea was to send a box all about the state or region you live in.


Andi- I got to send a fun box filled with Hoosier fun to Andi.  She is a 1st grade teacher living outside of Detroit, MI. It was fun getting to read her blog and getting to know her through email. Go check out her blog and see the goodies got to send her.

Rebecca sent me a sweet box from the coast of North Carolina. Rebecca is a Marine Wife, originally from Chicagoland. She sent me  a really cute box.  The goodies made me super excited for summer.  I was so excited when I got the package slip on my apartment that I went back out in the rain to go get the package from the front office and it was worth it.  Go Check out her blog!

Now on to pics of the goodies I received:

 She sent me:
* A Marine Chocolate Bar and magnet to represent their life on the marine base and how big of a part of their lives that the USMC is.

* A postcard and Pepsi cup  from the pharmacy where Pepsi was invented, which is just 30 minutes west of the base she lives on.

* A super cute infinity scarf (that I can't wait to wear!!), pedicure set  and aloe for the beach. Rebecca lives 30 minutes west of the Alantic Ocean.  The Aloe came in handy today after a day at the water park yesterday!


I absolutely loved the box I received as well as sending the box. It was super fun getting to know these ladies.  Thank you so much Rebecca for the awesome box!

Check out the Cara Box swap over at Wifessionals and sign up!!