WORSHIP + READING PLAYLIST

I can't read in silence. I'm one of those people that needs noise to make me tune my mind to what I'm reading. Not only does it help me focus, but it has always been how I enjoyed to read most. I can remember this being true all the way back to high school and especially in college.  I would listen to my iPod with headphones whenever I had to study at school or in the super quiet library. Another one of my favorite things to do is to listen to music when I read on road trips. Just thinking about reading with my headphones in the warm car makes me want to travel right now. ;) It's always been the best way for me to enjoy reading even more.

It has even been so true that I have a couple of albums I associate directly with books I was reading when I listened for the first time. Isn't that funny?! Is anyone else like this too or is my mind just so music associative? I remember listening to the new (at the time) Adele album as I was reading Water for Elephants. I was flying to Florida with my parents and sister for vacation and now whenever I hear that album it always makes me think of that book, those sandy beaches, and the sunny balcony I spent so much time reading on during our summer vacation.

If you are like me when it comes to reading with music, yay I'm not alone in this! And this post is especially for you. If you think I'm weird and crazy and could never imagine reading AND listening to music at the same time, first of all, try it sometime and second of all, this playlist is still for you. Today I'm sharing the Spotify playlist I recently made for doing my Bible reading plan, and even if you don't want to listen while you read, these are songs you'll still want to add to your Jesus music repertoire. It's not a finished list in the least, but I've been loving it so far this year.

Just to name a few of the artists on the playlist:
Sovereign Grace Music
Audrey Assad
Bart Millard
Andrew Peterson
Shane & Shane

Some of my top favorites you will hear are "All Creatures of Our God and King," "All Glory Be to Christ," "O Praise the Name," "Prayer," and "Grace That Is Greater." So if nothing else, listen to those first.



This playlist will continue to grow and change throughout the year I'm sure. I would love to know your favorites right now too, so please drop them below in the comments.

Happy reading AND listening! 😊
-Emily

HOMEMADE PIZZA NIGHT + DELISH NO YEAST DOUGH RECIPE

I need to talk to y'all about pizza. My family could have pizza night once a week (and often times, we do haha). Anybody else? I guess it's pretty fitting that we moved to the pizza capital of the US - Chicago. Deep dish pizza really is all that it's talked up to be, guys. If you are ever in the Chicago area you n e e d to try Lou Malnati's or Geno's East for some amazing Chicago style pizza. It's so different than your regular pizzas out there. But that's not what this post is about. ;) It's about the fantastic pizza you can make at home!

I have made homemade pizzas in the past that were just average. Too much plain-tasting sauce. The crust was soggy in the middle. Not a whole lot of flavor. But THIS pizza was way way tastier and so easy, and definitely not average! My husband (who is a big pizza l o v e r) could not stop raving about my homemade pizza on Friday night. That's the best feeling as a wife!! And I do have to admit, I was really surprised myself because I have always been a canned pizza crust kind of girl but this was BETTER. 

What was so different about this pizza, you ask? 

The first thing we loved more about this pizza was the dough! 1) You don't need yeast!!! (so many praise hands), 2) it was fluffy and fully baked in the middle, 3) golden crispy on the bottom (not burnt or white/underbaked), and 4) it didn't taste like flavorless cardboard (as homemade dough sometimes does). Also, you don't have to pre-bake the dough before putting toppings on which is just another plus.

The second thing we loved was the sauce and it was so simple to put together. It was the most delicious, flavorful companion to that perfect dough. Here's how to make it!

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE

Ingredients

1 jar of marinara sauce 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Bring all ingredients to a simmer in a sauce pan. 

Note: I actually had about 1/4 cup of sauce left over that I didn't put on the pizza. My husband likes to have a marinara dipping sauce so it worked perfectly to have some left over! Just use your own judgement on whether to use it all or not based on the size of your pizza - be generous with covering the dough minus about 1 inch around the edges, but as a general rule less is more here. 

NO YEAST PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk (plus 2 tbsp more if your dough seems too dry to combine)

1/4 cup room temp/softened unsalted butter  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare baking sheet or pizza pan with nonstick spray.

2. Combine all dough ingredients in a bowl and mix until dough ball forms. I like to use my hands to crumble up the butter into pea-sized crumbles of butter + dough. (This is something I learned from my mother-in-law when making homemade biscuits. ;)

3. Roll dough ball out onto a floured surface with a rolling pin. This dough can be quite sticky at first! I rolled mine to be about 1/4 inch thick. (I didn't have the prettiest edges on this pizza, but I'll make that better next time!)

4. Move dough onto prepared baking sheet or pizza pan. Now it's time to add your pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. 

*For toppings I used my homemade pizza sauce, a blend of Mexican and mozzarella shredded cheese, diced onions, green peppers, and pepperonis.*

5. Bake for 15 minutes until underneath dough is golden brown. 

And that's it! This recipe has officially been added to our favorites list and I can't wait to try it with other toppings. Stock up on your favorite pizza toppings and get this pizza cooking on your next Friday night, guys. You won't be disappointed!

Emily 

DIY VALENTINE'S DAY GARLAND

V A L E N T I N E ' S   D A Y is just around the corner! Whether you like Valentine's Day or not, you have to admit the decorations are kinda the cutest there ever was when it comes to holiday decor. Am I right?  I don't usually decorate our house for Valentine's Day, but this year I figured we should make a lil somethin' because Chicago Januarys are like 753 days long, and I needed some Valentine's Day cheer in my life.

If your kid is like mine, painting is fun for maybe 10 minutes max and then it either turns into a complete MESS or they are just over it. So I was trying to think of something that let him get a teeny tiny bit messy, but in a quick and contained way. This craft was exactly that and you DON'T have to be a super crafty mama to have this turn out adorable. And I bet you have all of the supplies already at home! It ended up being soo simple and GREAT for decorating, and I am excited to share this easy Valentine's Day garland with you all!

First, I cut heart shapes of various sizes and colors out of construction paper.

I tried two different painting methods. The first was the "no mess finger painting" with a ziplock bag. It was kind of a fail for us. Maybe I didn't put enough paint, but it didn't spread well. Then when I went to take the construction paper out of the bag, the paper stuck and tore slightly. It was still salvageable, but it was not my favorite method.

The other method was good ole paint brush and/or fingers. I used a piece of rolled up tape to hold the heart onto his tray and let him at it. YES, it was definitely more messy than this first picture I snapped so don't be fooled. 😂  This method ended up being way more fun for Charlie to do and, in my opinion, looked more artistic. But I would still suggest that you try both methods to see what works best for your little one.

The beautiful thing about this craft is that you don't even have to do paint. You can use stickers from the dollar store, glitter, pom poms, or glue smaller heart shapes to the big heart shapes. This craft is totally customizable to what you have on hand.

Once all of our painted hearts had dried, I used tape to hang them on a piece of twine, and ta dah! Our very own homemade Valentine's Day garland!

If you make this with your kiddos, I would love to see how it turned out! You can tag me in it or send it to me via Instagram (Username @emilyjamesy). 

Happy Valentine's Day friends!

Emily

FAVORITES FROM 2017

2017 absolutely flew by. Was it like that for you? I know people probably say that about every year that comes and goes, but really, THIS year FLEW by more than the others. I'm going to blame having a one-year-old growing right before my eyes and our big move to Illinois, but maybe it's just because I'm getting OLD? Could also be a three-way tie...

As a big wrap up, I thought I would blog some of my favorite things from the year. Favorite memory, kitchen item, book, make up, food, candle, vacation - just all across the board new favorites from my 2017. I love reading these kinds of blog posts. So in no particular order, here are my 2017 favorites.


Music: Audrey Assad
This was the year of Audrey for my husband and I. We took countless road trips to and from Louisville and Chicago and she was a regular on every trip. If you're looking for someone to listen to during your Bible reading time or just some new worship tunes, go listen to her Inheritance album right now. I listened to these three over and over this year and I linked them to Youtube for you: Abide With Me, Good to Me, and Holy, Holy, Holy. 

Vacation: Gatlinburg, Tennessee 
In May the three of us traveled from Louisville to Gatlinburg for a family vacation with my husband's whole family. We had just accepted the job at Crossway so it was such a relief to go on this trip and relax with family before coming home and preparing to move. This place has such a special spot in my heart.  We stayed in a huge cabin on the same street as the Apple Barn (if you've never been to GB or The Apple Barn, seriously GO). Needless to say, it was a great location!

Charlie's 1st Birthday 
On August 4th our baby boy turned ONE. We had already moved to Illinois by that time, so we traveled back to Kentucky for the weekend to celebrate with almost 40 people for his birthday party! It was so special to get to see so many of our family and friends to praise the Lord with us for the first year of Charlie's life. You can read my post about the whole party here. He took his first steps the same weekend as his first birthday, and he's been nonstop ever since.

Kitchen Tool: Immersion Blender(and Homemade Mayo)
I bought myself a Kitchen Aid Immersion Blender with a birthday gift card and it's becoming my favorite kitchen thing! I really got it to attempt a recipe for Whole 30 Mayo and let me tell y'all - it's the BEST mayo you will ever taste and so much healthier. I'll drop my recipe below. So far this mayo is all I've used the stick blender for, so if you have other recipes you like to use an immersion blender with send them my way!

Podcasts: Risen Motherhood 
This year I finally got on the Podcast train. The first one I listened to was Serial (I know, I'm only like years late but whatever). Serial was interesting but I was a little disappointed with the ending to be honest. My favorite podcast is definitely Risen Motherhood! Two sister-in-laws talk about a Christ-centered view of motherhood and daily life and often invite guest speakers on. I usually listen to a podcast while doing dishes, cooking, or in the car on road trips. What are your favorite podcasts of the year??

Concert: Ellie Holcomb(and getting to meet her!!) 
This is one of my most favorite little memories of 2017. So, on August 17th (the day after my birthday), I was just scrolling through Instagram stories while I was waiting for dinner to come out of the oven, when Ellie's came up. She said she was in Naperville for a free concert for women starting at 7 p.m. at a local church. My Naperville, IL? Free? In 45 minutes? I flipped out - could I make it in time!?  No worries that I had to scarf some food down (I didn't even have time to wait for the hot dinner I had cooking!). I rang up my new neighbor friend and she sweetly came along to the concert with me! It was one of those once in a lifetime, last minute, super fun things. And I got to meet her, hug her, and thank her for her music after the concert! 

Book: Wonder by R. J. Palacio 
When I was in college, I had several friends read and recommend this book (especially since we were becoming teachers), but I just never got around to it. Yall - it's amazing! It's a quick and easy read that every student, teacher, and parent needs to read. So glad I finally did! 

Make Up: Tarte Shape Tape
This is the BEST concealer. And it smells weridly good too (like licorice!). It retails for $27 at Ulta which I know is more expensive than what you would find at Target, but it lasts for a long time and is worth every penny if you need some coverage and eye brightening. 

Candle: Target Sun Kissed Soy Candle
Before this year I had exclusively bought Bath and Body Works candles for yearssss. I got this candle for a friend and then went back and got one for myself because when I smelled it burning in her house I had to have it! It's a soy candle (Bath and Body are not soy), and it burned so pleasantly and not super loudly (unlike Bath and Body, also). My only complaint was that it didn't burn evenly at all, but I was able to continue using it with a candle warmer. 

Day Trip to Chicago
About a month after we moved to Illinois we took our first train ride into Chicago! The train was a super fun experience but the hour long ride was about Charlie's limit. We walked around downtown, visited Millennium Park, ate Potbelly, and just enjoyed the great weather! Definitely want to go again when it warms up with a list of places to visit in mind. There are some amazing donut shops that I'm dying to try. Hopefully will do that in 2018 ;)

LUSH Sleepy Lotion
This is the most wonderful lavender vanilla lotion EVER. It's also a really pretty purple. I love to put this all over my hands, arms, and legs before bed. The smell really does soothe and make you sleepy. I just ran out and I've been missing it at night so I need to stock up on that again soon!

& being a momma!
Are one-year-olds not the most fun thing in the world?? GOSH. It really is true that becoming a parent opens up a whole new part of your heart that you didn't even know was there and could love another person. Next month Charlie will officially be one and a half. He talks ALL the time. He loves any kind of ball or cooking thing. Some days I feel like we already have a two-year-old on our hands (the independence and the tantrums!!!). Since his first birthday he has cut all 4 pre-molars and now 3 canine teeth, but he's such a good sport about life even though I can tell his gums hurt him A LOT.  He's a little trooper. 

2017 was the first full year of being a parent, and boy am I happy to be called Mom. :) 

I wish you all the best 2018! 

Emily 

Christmas Cookies + BEST Icing for Decorating

I love love love to bake. When I was living at home with my parents, the idea of baking always sounded fun but since no one in my family was an avid baker, we didn't usually keep a ton of baking ingredients on hand. So I would always talk myself out of trying to bake something new. 

When I got married, though, I quickly grew to love and look forward to baking. Mostly because I was baking for my husband, now! It was also pretty resourceful too, because those brown bananas needed to be put to good use, right? In the last few years baking has become something I do regularly and love to do. And when you have two boys under your roof, they will never EVER resent having a Mom who loves to bake! 

Finding a fun set of cookie cutters at Dollar Tree the other day was really what made me want to decorate Christmas cookies, so that's what we did this past Thursday. This was the first time Charlie got to "help" use cookie cutters and he was ALL about it. Not so much the cookie cutting, but definitely the squishing of dough and sneaking handfulls into his mouth faster than we could catch. Seriously, try baking with a one year old soon...you will be amazed at how fast they are at making a mess and sneak-eating.

The gingerbread mix we used was wonderfully prepared by the one and only Betty Crocker. They turned out more like a soft baked cookie than a crunchy gingersnap.While I usually love to make my other favorite cookies homemade, I definitely appreciated the ease of a pre-made mix since we were going all out for our cookie decorating shebang with a toddler included.

BUTTERCREAM JUST LIKE ROYAL ICING 

Royal icing is all the hype right now, but I'm still a little weirded out about using a raw egg like that, and feeding it to my little one. So we made a batch of buttercream and it ended up being the most royal-icing like buttercream I have EVER seen. You'll notice on my cookies (especially the Grandma Snowman) how the frosting smoothed out similar to royal icing. So if you are looking for the royal icing effect with a classic buttercream taste, I would definitely recommend this recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons milk


Directions:

1. Start by mixing 2 cups of the powdered sugar and softened butter with a mixer. (You will add in the third cup of powdered sugar later.)

2. Add the vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoons of milk to the mixture and incorporate with the mixer again.

3. Add in the last cup of powdered sugar, little by little, mixing after each addition. If the mixture is becoming super thick, do not add anymore of the powdered sugar. It's okay if you don't use all of the last cup of powdered sugar. In order to achieve a "royal icing-like" consistency, you will want the frosting to be slightly thinner than normal buttercream would be. I found that using the mixer for a minute or two also allowed for a smoother texture on the icing.

4. Once the consistency is right, add in food color of your choice for decorating!

My plate

Husband's plate

I hope you all get a chance to do some cookie decorating this year! We cut and baked the cookies together as a family, but once Charlie was in bed for the night we had a cookie decorating "date" at the kitchen table and it's one of my favorite holiday memories so far this year. It doesn't have to be fancy (I used Dollar Tree items and pre-made mix! ;), it only has to be fun!


Merry Christmas, friends!

King Jesus Surrendered and So Should I

Confession: I have been 100% stressing over Christmas this year.

I started thinking about gifts way earlier than I normally would, wrote so many lists so that I could be checking things off, made sure each Christmas present was what that person specifically wanted, and have just been trying to do it all. And guess what? It's not been fun. Or joyful. Or without an immense amount of stress put on myself.

Maybe this year has been more stressful because it's our first year traveling home for Christmas. What if I forget something? What if it snows the day we're supposed to leave? Maybe that thought was just too overwhelming and needed too much planning. Maybe I was trying to achieve perfection to compensate for not being around family the whole month of December. How can we do all of our favorite Christmas things in the span of 2 weeks! Maybe I was just completely and utterly giving in to every wrong desire to give and do the most, the best, and the most meaningful.

My heart is so tempted, and often does, give in to worry and people-pleasing.

Last night after dinner I told my husband, "I'm tired of thinking about Christmas." Not exactly what people usually say about the holidays. Christmas is usually something I could enjoy all year long.

Are you ready for what he said back to me? "Don't think about it all day long." He went on, "Write your thoughts down clearly as they come, and if it's something you can't take care of at that exact moment, just come back later. In the meantime, think about something else."

*Insert shocked/blinking guy GIF here*

No one told me I had to do Christmas the way I had been. No one put any pressure on me to do X and Y. I didn't have to be thinking about Christmas planning or wish lists 90% of the time, I just was and wanted to be. I created unnecessary stress by my own, sinful self. Christmas anxiety, party of one.

He's right. I don't have to think about it all day long. When the thought is overwhelming or worrisome, I should know then and there that it's probably time to move on for the day. That's my reminder to give it over to the Lord. There is absolutely no joy in worrying about things being "perfect."

This morning as I thought about what my husband said last night, I realized I have spent so much time thinking and creating stressful thoughts, demanding my own way, seeking worldly approval, and far less time meditating on the good news of the Christmas season. I have deprived myself of true joy, and that is a sad thought to realize.

When I came to the day's advent reading in Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul Tripp, the first sentence said, "I have a confession to make: I'm a very project-oriented person. I know exactly what I want to accomplish every day of my life...In the midst of the drivenness of the day I become a God-amnesiac, and my thoughts, desires, and emotions are shaped by how well I am able to accomplish my sovereign plan for the day."

Me me me me me. Me. Me. Hand raised. Exactly how I have been feeling. Right there the Lord was about to call me out and speak specifically to my sin.

Let me share some other truths from that daily advent reading:

-My way of living (that is, with worry, demanding my own way, seeking perfection and worldly approval) is in stark contrast to Jesus' way of living. Jesus models the Lord's Prayer, which shows us a better way to orient our priorities and desires.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.

-Paul Tripp says in his book that the Lord's Prayer is a call to surrender every moment, situation, relationship, and natural gifting to the will of the King.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.

-The amazing truth of the gospel came through Jesus' sacrifice and surrender.  If anyone had a right to demand their own way, their own goals/plans/desires it was Jesus. And yet, he surrendered all of that by coming into the world as a helpless, crownless baby, living a perfect life, dying a terrible death on the cross, and rising again on the third day to defeat sin and death.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.

I need simple reminders like this when the cloud of anxiety and people-pleasing has made me forget. I don't want to spend my daily thoughts, let alone during Christmastime, on things that are not true, not helpful, and not Christ-like. King Jesus surrendered his will for the will of the Father and so should I.

"BIG REPUTATION, BIG REPUTATION" REVIEW + OTHER THOUGHTS

I broke down and got Taylor Swift's new album Reputation last weekend. I honestly didn't think I would want it because I didn't like the first single she released, but as the album release got closer I just flat out changed my mind. I love owning physical copies of music, so we headed to Target on Saturday morning to pick it up. Husband went along with it, thankfully. He's the best. ;)

Y'all are probably going to laugh about this post and think I'm silly. But I just feel like writing about it and going down memory lane, if you will.

It's fun to have one thing you've loved for a long time, that you keep coming back to year after year. For some people it's a certain book or a movie series. In a lot of ways, music has always been that for me. Taylor Swift is at the top of the list probably.

I remember the first time I saw her in concert with my mom and middle school friend in 2008. She was on tour with Rascal Flatts who I was really more interested in at the time. (And by interested, I really mean absolutely obsessed but that's probably for another nostalgic post. 😂) Taylor had just released "Love Story" on the radio and I remember being SO hopeful that she would sing it at the concert and she did. I'm not joking when I say that it gave me chills when she started playing it just because I was so full of excitement and that kind of special feeling you get when you hear a favorite song. I wish I had pictures to share, but that was almost 10 years ago so who knows where they are now! 

The second time I saw Taylor Swift perform was on the RED tour in 2013 with my little sister, Rachel. Ed Sheeran was on tour with Taylor and it was pretty stinkin' great. I was blown away because she changed outfits like 20 times. It was the first concert I drove and went to without an "adult" - I was the adult now haha. Enjoy this extra blurry picture of our good sister memory.

Here we are years later. I'm 2.5 years married, have a 15 month old son, and I'm still listening and getting excited about her new music. 

Reputation is not my favorite album of hers and I doubt it ever will be. It doesn't have that cohesive feeling or emotion like I normally get from her other albums. Overall I would say the album has fewer genuinely sweet love songs than I would like, she does a lot more talk-singing in a monotone voice, and some of the songs are little too vengeful for my taste. Ha! So I definitely have some issues with it. However, there are a few great ones on there too. I'll list my favorites at the end, so keep reading.

I'm still glad I decided to pick it up. She's changed as an artist over the years, that is for sure. I've changed too. I think change is a normal and good thing for an artist to do. I'm not going to be one of those people that complain about how Taylor Swift went from country to pop. But I think it's interesting that there's something that still remains that brings all those familiar emotions back up to the surface.

I know I'm not the only one who has that one thing they'll probably just love because it holds a special place in their growing up years. Doesn't matter if it gets a bad reputation. (See what I did there?) Or if it changes over the years. Or if it seems a little childish. Or outdated. It might be a "guilty pleasure," something that makes you feel nostalgic, something that makes you remember. That's how I feel about Reputation.

If you haven't listened to Taylor Swift's new album yet, I would recommend these favorites to you: 

Delicate 

Dancing With Our Hands Tied

Call It What You Want

Getaway Car

King of My Heart

New Years Day

Happy listening! Xo Emily



Hold on to the memories they will hold on to you. And I will hold on to you.