Lonestar Lagniappe

Good Morning!  I am excited to start a new 'series' - if you will - on the blog.  The new series of posts will show off our house renovation.  You'll get to see the product of all of our hard work! :)  Hopefully, you'll love it as much as we do.   Let's backup for just a second.  W and I had a hard time buying our first home ( Well, I had a hard time! )  The market was so 'hot' that every time we saw a house we liked, it had been bought by the time we tried to schedule a showing.  No joke.  Houses were selling within hours of being on the market and for way over asking price.  We knew we wanted to fix up our house, really put our hard work into it, and create some sweat equity.  Our initial strategy was to buy a that was 70% or so finished only leaving us a few projects.  Once we saw the demand for housing and lost a few houses we really liked to a higher bidder, we lowered our standards ( haha! ), and found our lovely ho...

On this lovely overcast Sunday morning both W and I are sick.  I have been fighting this since Tuesday, and W just started feeling poorly yesterday.  So, naturally, we are lying low today and resting on this 3 day weekend. While I was lying on the couch watching an NCIS marathon ( the best ) I was looking through my Bloglovin' app and catching up on the blogs that I follow when it occurred to me - I need to post something new on my blog!  Then I looked, and wowie - I haven't update my blog since April! ( but let's be honest...am I the only one that reads this? ) We have had a lot  going on, and to tell you the truth, I honestly haven't even thought about my blog.  Let me clue you in.  In May, we bought our first house, went to Hawaii for our 5 year wedding anniversary, and and soon as we got back started renovations on our house.  Every second that I'm not at work I am painting, cleaning, or at Lowe's - I am sleeping.  This is an exhaustin...

I hope everyone had a great day celebrating Easter and the resurrection of our Lord!  We usually would all go to my mom and dad's house and have a nice lunch, but this year after church, we did something a little different and went to our family ranch - Five Oaks Ranch.  We had a nice pot-luck picnic.  The weather was great - mid 70's and slightly windy - so it wasn't too hot! After our lunch, the grands had a little easter egg hunt ( of which I have no pics, oops! ) and then we  went by the oak tree that we named the place after, our Five Oaks tree, and took some family pictures.  See below!   W and I headed to Easter service. The whole gang in front of our Five Oaks tree! (L-R) Janel, Joanna, Jason, Jonah; Curt and Laura; Me and W; Lana, Libby, Justin As my mom would say #grandsaregrand ( yes, she know how to hashtag... ) The original 5 Kates (L-R): Me, Mom, Dad, Jason, Justin our beautiful oak tree Five Oaks Ranch I'm...

Happy Easter!  Enjoy the day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!  xoxo

I don't know about you, but English was not my strong suit growing up.  It's weird because I used to be a pretty good writer, and I communicate my feelings best by writing them down.  That said, every once in a while I get a word or phrase stuck in my brain and I have to do a word study ( of sorts ) to better understand what is being meant/said/relayed. Lately, one of my favorite worship songs is " Relentless " by Hillsong United.  The words of the chorus are what made me curious, or stuck in my brain enough, that I had to do a Jordan-style word study.  The chorus goes as follows:   "You carry us - when the world gives way. You cover us - with Your endless grace. Your love is relentless. " Relentless . From  dictionary.com : "a djective : unyieldingly severe, strict, or harsh;  unrelenting."   Synonyms: rigid, unbending, obdurate,  adamant, unyielding.   From  Merriam-Webster : "continuing without becoming we...

I have a confession:  I don't get around to cooking a lot these days.  With a full time job and a 45-60 minute commute, by the time I get home from being on my feet all day I don't generally want to stand around and make dinner.   My bad.   I am ( maybe) getting somewhat better as of late. My good friend, Natalie, just had her baby.  ( She's the one we threw the Peter Rabbit  baby shower  for recently. )  Anyway, I wanted to bring them dinner.  I generally like to make lasagna for several reasons:  It's so good homemade!  It's easy to make in a large portion which is good for extra family members or leftovers.  It's universally liked - well, it should be anyway.  Who doesn't love lasagna?  ( My mom, that's who - but she's allergic to cheese - so that's a whole different story. )  As it turns out, someone had already brought Nat and Seth lasagna, so I had to think of something else that would be good ...

If you were to take a peek into my closet, you will no doubt see  a lot  of black and white.  I just can't help myself sometimes - and I know what works on my body.  I also recently discovered Polyvore  ( I know - late to the party! ), and really have loved using it to put together some looks - from outfits to home - that I love.   In honor of spring's arrival, I have put together two different looks that I would wear that started with the black and white dresses.  I love these looks for many reasons.  Do you wear black and white as a staple?  What are your go-to colors? Black / White 2 ways by jordankbowling featuring a brown leather belt Have a great rest of the weekend! xoxo