Thrifty Thursdays and SHOP!!

Happy Thursday!!

I just wanted to update you on some new plans in the works...

Starting next Thursday (March 7th), I'm going to start an ongoing series titled "Thrifty Thursday". Every Thursday I will be posting an item that I have purchased from the thrift store and revamped and/or embellished for myself or one of my children. I'm fairly certain my husband wouldn't wear anything I've embellished. ;-) These posts will include before and after shots of the items, as well as a tutorial if you'd like to attempt to make a similar item for yourself or enlist a crafty friend to do it for you! I'm so excited for these posts and the excuse to A. raid thrift store racks, and B. SEW AND BE CRAFTY!!!

Tomorrow morning I will be posting items in my Etsy store for your purchasing pleasure. I have a small stockpile of items I've made in hopes of selling them, but never managed to get around to the selling part... until NOW! There are flowers and bows for wearing and a couple purses that would be great for spring or summer. There may be other things, but my memory is failing me right now. Come check it out! I'll be posting to facebook and Twitter as I go, so make sure you've "liked" and/or "followed" me there! Please note that after these items are gone, there won't be any more like them so grab them while you can! In the meantime, I'm working on items that will be better related to the mission of Purple Threads!

Until then...

Cassie

Forward Motion

I told you last week that I am done with excuses. I can live my life in a bubble, standing idly by and watching the world happen around me, or I can live my life. I'm choosing the latter.

So I started the launch of Purple Threads on Facebook today (find it here! also, here on Twitter), admist some turmoil at home that would have normally sent me spiraling into an all-day, cookie-eating depression that would inevitably do nothing but cause weight gain and more depression. Nope. Not gonna happen. By the way, Mr. Threads and I are fine. It's not THAT kind of turmoil. ;-) Let me explain.

We moved into our home a year ago. I had just found out that I was pregnant and the tenant of one of my dad's rental properties was moving out at the end of February. All great news for a woman frantically trying to figure out how she was going to fit a surprise baby into an already crammed 2-bedroom apartment with her husband and 6-year-old son. Goodbye 2-bedroom apartment; hello 3-bedroom, 1-1/2 bathroom, living room, dining room, privacy fence, front and back porch, 2-car garage WITH FULL BASEMENT, 1930's-built, beauty of a home. I may or may not have ran through the house dancing after we got the keys. ;-)

We moved in and I had dreams and goals for how I would decorate and make it home. Then reality hit me- I was newly pregnant and exhausted. I was also working full-time, so I felt like I was ready to go to bed by the time I got home from work every night. I spent the weekends frantically trying to clean and put things away, but I was really just compounding my exhaustion and the vicious cycle began.

I kept telling myself that I would have 6 weeks off work after the baby was born and I'd be able to get everything done then. Felicity Grace was born at 11:52pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012. I was released Saturday afternoon, went to church on Sunday and spent the day Monday sleeping in between feedings and changings because it had all finally caught up with me. After 3 weeks of trying to figure out why she was eating constantly but not keeping anything down, we learned she was lactose intolerant. We switched to soy formula and she's been fine ever since! But before I knew it, those 6 weeks were over and I was headed back to work.

I only work two days each week now, and I've been chipping away at the housework day by day between bottles, naps, picking up my son from school, and helping with various projects at our church. It seems like I start projects but have to stop for one of several reasons and the next day I have something more important that has to be done, so I always have projects started all over the house. This past weekend, though, it really hit me how much this work has been weighing on my mind. I woke Saturday night sobbing after dreaming that my husband yelled at me for not getting more done around the house. Yesterday and today I woke up in other rooms of the house frantically trying to clean and put things away in my sleep. Something has to change now.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting pictures of my projects as they are completed so you can see my progress. This year is the start of great things and I want my home to be the peaceful place it should be, not the chaotic one we've had.

I'll leave you with this worship break. ;-)

Until next time...
Cassie

Excuses, Excuses... and then a Purpose.

I like excuses. They keep me from doing things I'm scared to do, things I know I should do, things I want to do; they keep me from being vulnerable.

I'm really good at coming up with excuses, and trust me, I've used them all at least once. twice. a few hundred times. I'm also really good at ideas. I have lots of them all the time. They run through my mind constantly like Olympic-qualifying, record-crushing track phenomenons. And those ideas spawn dreams and plans, but before they can grow to realities, they die at the hands of my excuses. It's quite pathetic, much like my analogies.

The sad part is it's all true and I know it about myself, but I've never been willing to change. Changing takes work. It's hard, it takes effort and, most of all, it takes accountability- all things that I've never been fond of. Please don't misunderstand, though, it's not because I like being lackadaisical, but because I don't want to fail and in my mind you can't fail if you just don't try in the first place. Seems like an easy concept, right? Wrong. It never hit me quite like the day my husband threw it in my face. He wasn't being malicious and probably didn't even realize how much he hurt me, but he did, and I'm glad.

We were having a conversation about things we wanted to do or change within our home, personal goals and goals for our family. I mentioned this blog and my dreams for starting my own business from home and made some off-handed, snarky remark about how, despite my dreaming and planning, it would never happen because none of my plans ever do.

"You're not a finisher, are you?"

The words stung like lemon juice in a papercut. I'm notorious for starting projects and not finishing them, or simply wanting to do projects that never even get started. I choked back tears (much like I am now) and, after a moment to compose myself, I replied 'no, I'm not'. He asked me why, and when I told him, he grinned and said he would always support me in anything I wanted to do and that I had no reason to fear because I'm good at everything I do. I shrugged it off, telling myself those are things a husband is supposed to say.

I pushed that day to the back of my mind. Every once in a while I'm reminded, but for the most part I've forgotten it- until the beginning of this year. You see, this year marks my 25th year of existence on this earth. I've made a lot of mistakes over the years and I've also made a lot of excuses. But it's time for a change, time for an "about-face", time to let go of those ridiculous excuses and start doing the things I know I'm supposed to do.

I started this blog with a purpose and I let it slip away with excuses, mostly that no one would care what I have to say for one reason or another. Until now. Not because I want fame or glory or recognition, but because I have a husband and children who need and depend on me to provide them with healthy, substantial meals and a happy home full of laughter and life, and most of all, want me to love them as much and more than they love me.

Here's to 2013 and living the life of a virtuous woman- with prayer, focus, love, hope, PURPOSE, and NO EXCUSES.

Stupid Easy Chicken Soft Tacos

I've teased my husband for years that he has to have some kind of Hispanic or Italian genetics in his bloodline somewhere. If I made tacos or pasta every day he'd be a happy camper.

Thanks to the wonder that we know as Pinterest, I have found dozens of recipes (or maybe a few more than dozens!) that I'm trying one by one to build our go-to, family friendly recipe collection. Eventually, I'd like to make one of those monthly menu planning calendars (also an idea from Pinterest) because I'm one of those people that methodically plan and calculate every move to maximize my time, space and money, aka borderline OCD. Guilty as charged. But don't judge me yet; I've found that the theory proves itself to be true- our grocery bills really are smaller when I plan recipes with similar ingredients to buy in bulk and/or keep stock of what's in the cabinets so I can use what we already have on hand.

But that's a whole other topic that we'll discuss later. Right now, on to the recipe!

Chicken Soft Tacos (from Crockin' Girls)

• 1 Pound of Chicken
• 2 Packages of Taco seasoning (low sodium)
• 1 Can of Rotel
• 1 Can of Black beans (I rinse mine before tossing them into the crock pot to get rid of that slimey goop that surrounds them!)
• 1 Cup of Frozen corn
• Chicken broth

Directions

1. Put first five ingredients in slow cooker and pour in enough chicken broth to cover everything.
2. Cook on low for approximately 5 hours or until chicken is cooked through and the house smells AMAZING!
3. Shred chicken and return to pot.
4. Serve with warm corn tortillas, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, etc...

I get asked to make these at least every other week or so. We've also cooked them on high for 2-3 hours for an easy Sunday lunch instead of going out... Just chop your tomatoes, onions, etc. on Saturday night or Sunday morning, flip it on before you leave and when you get back, it's ready! Doesn't get much easier than that!

Enjoy!

Cassie

Purple Threads- Defined

The Virtuous Woman. If you've read Proverbs 31 or anything written about it, you've read about her; who she is, what she does, and why she does it. If you haven't, let me include it here:

¹⁰ Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.
¹² She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

¹³ She finds wool and flax and busily spins it.
¹⁴ She is like a merchant’s ship, bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant girls.

¹⁶ She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She is energetic and strong, a hard worker.
¹⁸ She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night.

¹⁹ Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber.
²⁰ She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy.
²¹ She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes.
²² She makes her own bedspreads. She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
²³ Her husband is well known at the city gates, where he sits with the other civic leaders.
²⁴ She makes belted linen garments and sashes to sell to the merchants.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
²⁶ When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
²⁷ She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness.
²⁸ Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her:
²⁹ “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
³¹ Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

The description of a Virtuous Woman is something the Lord has brought to my attention many times over the past few years. Have I always listened? No, of course not. Do we ever listen at first? No, of course not. Not usually, anyway.

The more time goes on, the more I realize the importance of the life of a Virtuous Woman. Society today presents us with a distorted, ungodly model of what its expectations are for womanhood- professionally successful in business, self-centered and driven to prove she is man's equal. God did not create woman to be man's equal, she was created to be his helper (Genesis 2:18). Man was made keeper of God's creation, and woman made to help him.

My desire is to be like the woman God has asked me to be in His Word, and this blog was birthed out of that desire so that, through my study and search for Godly womanhood, I may help other women of every age become God's design, as well. I want to provide you with ideas for cooking healthy but inexpensive meals for your family, tips and tricks for housekeeping and personal hygiene, finding and wearing modest apparel, financial wisdom and anything else that I find on my journey.

The name, 'Purple Threads', refers to verse 22 of the chapter ("she dresses in fine linen and purple gowns"), but is also related to verse 25 ("she is clothed in strength and dignity"). It also refers to the "threads" in the "tapestry" of one's life.

With these thoughts in mind, I have come up with a "mission statement" for this endeavor.

The mission of Purple Threads is to engage women of all ages in finding their purpose as women of God, to equip them for productivity by means of God’s Word and time-conscious tools, to empower them with spiritual authority in their life so that they may embark on the fulfillment of God's destiny for their life.

This blog is a new adventure for me, so I'm looking for your input as the reader for ideas on posts. Please leave comments with your ideas! I'm looking forward to hearing from YOU!

Cassie