Wife After God

I recently finished up a 30 day bible study I had been doing on my own called "Wife After God", and it totally blew me away. I wanted to share it with you guys as it was honestly one of the most inspirational and meaningful studies I've done. Whether you've been married for 3 weeks (woop woop for newlyweds) or are about to celebrate your 25 year anniversary this book is an incredible look into what it means to be a wife after God's own heart. Jennifer Smith, the author, really delves into the meaning of marriage and role we as wives are to play in our marriage as a Godly companion for our husbands. I loved how she came at marriage from the perspective that as wives we are to love and serve our husbands through our love and servanthood to Christ. Without a strong bond with Him, we cannot hope to foster a loving marriage.

One thing that I really latched on to from this study was that my actions towards my husband need to be intentional. It's so easy for us to get caught up in their short falls, our own needs, and our own selfish desires within a relationship. However, Jennifer helps us focus those thoughts into a productive and positive channel by showing us that as God loves us and forgives us so should we do the same for our husbands by showing them a Christ-like love daily. I also loved how she made a point to let her readers know that God is the only one who can truly satisfy that longing for perfect love in our hearts. When we can come to understand that God's love for us is infinite and never ending, only then can we truly know what it means to be a wife of God and to try and love our husbands in the same way. This study allowed me to soften my heart and to be so much more patient with my marriage (something I've always struggled with...patience is not a virtue of mine). I can't recommend this book enough to you married ladies out there! It has helped me so much in both my walk with Christ and in my marriage by showing me how to be intentional towards my relationship with my husband in a way that also allows me to fall in love with my Savior once again.

And for you ladies that just can't seem to find enough time in the day for a long Beth Moore type study (for real though, he studies are awesome but gosh darn if they don't take an hour or two out of your day sometimes!) this is the perfect one for you! It has a journaling portion that goes along with each day too which I found to be very beneficial! Oh and it's under $8 if you have a Kindle and can order from Amazon! I hope you ladies will check it out :)

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Living Local

The weather was so incredibly nice here in the panhandle today the hubs and I decided we would venture out to the local St. Andrew's Farmers Market. Ok, I'll be a little more honest, it was definitely more my idea than his and he was basically dragged there, but he was sweet and indulged me for the morning by carrying around bags of produce and meat ;) I had found this market on Facebook a few months ago and had been waiting until the weather got warmer and more enjoyable before venturing out to see what it was all about. I've always been really intrigued by buying local, fresh, organic, produce and meats and this was a great opportunity to find such items here in Florida.

I definitely plan on frequenting this market.  Everyone was so nice and helpful and they had an awesome selection that I'm sure will only get better once spring and summer gets here when produce is even more in season! If you're from the Panama City area I'd highly recommend checking this place out if it's your kind of thing. There were even stands for local honey (my favorite) and homemade pasta which we bought to try this week!

We got some fresh shrimp right off the boat basically,
which we're both super excited to try!

Most of our haul, minus the shrimp! Notice we found
 some local honey and grass fed beef...yumm!

Love,

The Etheridges

Healthier Protein Pancakes

Have you been looking for a healthier spin on the classic and well loved pancake? I know you had, that's why I thought I'd share a new favorite breakfast recipe of mine that I found over at Reno Mom's Blog and altered slightly ;) Not only are these pancakes pretty scrumptious for "healthy" pancakes but they can also be altered to suit your tastes and based on what you have laying around the kitchen. I also tried freezing some of them a few weeks ago and when heated back up in the microwave or oven they taste EXACTLY the same as fresh off the griddle. With Little C on the way I'm trying to find healthy breakfast options I can just pop out of our new freezer (thanks tax return $) and heat up in the mornings, otherwise I'll just end up eating cereal every single day...not that there is anything wrong with that I do love me some cereal!

Healthier Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

4 Whole Eggs (6 egg whites if you prefer)

1 Cup of Greek Yogurt (or Cottage Cheese)

1 Cup Rolled Oats

1 Tbsp. Honey

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 Scoop of Protein Powder (optional)

Directions:

*Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well. (It will look a little runny but don't worry, that's ok!)

*Pour batter onto greased/non-stick skillet and cook on both sides for 2 min or until done.

*Top with your favorite fruit, peanut butter, or syrup.

*Makes about 7-9 servings

I take the leftover pancakes and flash freeze
them on a baking sheet and then remove and
place in a bag with parchment paper
between each pancake for easy removal every
morning! 

I put peanut butter and fresh fruit on mine in the mornings
to cut down on the sugar intake versus traditional syrup.

Again, the protein powder is optional, but I did notice that it helped make the batter a little thicker and added a little bit more flavor overall. I also used Mexican vanilla that I found at the store here in Panama City (I know, go figure?) and it was delicious and a little stronger than regular McCormick vanilla you get at the store. P.S. If you haven't tried the "Greek Gods Honey Yogurt" you're missing out. It's out of this world. Enjoy!

Love,

The Etheridges

Scrumptious Homemade Hot Chocolate

As you all know there was a bit of an ice storm here in the south this week! I know, I know, 2 inches of snow in some areas and ice, what's so scary about that? You northerners and midwest folk were probably sitting there thinking how silly we all were for panicking at the first sight of this wet white snow stuff on the ground and the below freezing temperatures. I did live in Colorado after all for three years and got my fair taste of snow and ice, so I get where you're coming from. This type of weather however causes major panic around these parts since we aren't equipped to handle the roads and most people have no clue how to drive on ice (does anyone really though?). It was really scary for a lot of folks and I'm glad the "snowpocalypse" is now over!

Anyways, while the hubs and I were cooped up for two days...that's right he got two whole days off of work in the middle of the week, yipee... I decided we should make some hot chocolate. Well, truth me told I hadn't bought any mix at the store in an attempt to keep as much sugary goodness out of the house as possible while I pack on some extra weight with little munchkin growing away. That did not deter me however and my ploy to trick myself into staying away from sweets was all for nought. Once again Pinterest came to my rescue and I found this simply delectable recipe over at Tastes Better From Scratch. Moral of the story, if you want to whip up some yummy hot cocoa mix but don't have that handy Swiss Miss box in your pantry all you need are these few simple ingredients, which I'm willing to bet most of you have on hand 99% of the time anyways ;) Seriously though, this stuff is the cats meow! I would also like to note that Little C also enjoyed the hot chocolate on her end and decided that she thought it would be fun to kick me at hard as she could during her "sugar high" for about an hour straight...the joys of pregnancy!

Creamy Hot Chocolate

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

⅓ cup white sugar

⅓ cup boiling water 

Dash of salt

3 ½ cups of milk

½ cup of half & half

¾ tsp vanilla extract

(makes roughly 3-4 servings)

Directions:

*Combine sugar and cocoa in saucepan over low/medium heat

*Add salt and boiling water, then stir continuously

*Once boiling reduce heat and allow to simmer, stirring for 2 minutes

*Stir in milk and heat until hot, but NOT boiling

*Remove from heat and add vanilla

*Pour into your favorite mug and add half & half to reduce temperature 

And that's all folks! 

Let Go & Let God

Welp, here we are almost exactly one year from our assignment night! This time last year the hubs and I had just found out we would be heading to Florida sometime in the summer months and all his hard work had paid of because he was going to be flying his dream aircraft. It's crazy how even though that night was over 365 days ago (still seems insane to say that out loud) I can remember almost every second of that day and all the intense emotions that went along with it. The anticipation had been building over the period of an entire year and it all came down to that one night, and boy was it an awesome night. One neither of us will ever forget. Getting to celebrate such an intense year of training with some of our closest and now life long friends was a memory I wouldn't trade for anything.

A few months before Drop though I had had some serious doubts and fears. Fears that maybe God's plan wasn't our plan and where he wanted to place us wasn't where we wanted to be or go...you can see that post here. I'm a firm believer however that God uses all situations and circumstances to teach us things. Both the sudden death of my mother two days before our planned wedding day and the roller coaster ride known as UPT have shown me that and God has time and time again proven to me that his plans for my life and our little family are always the best, period.

Some of the Laughlin Crew...miss these faces like crazy.

Anyways, one year later we are:

 * Settled in Florida,

* The hubs is already well into his training program and loving it

*Our family is growing and we have our first munchkin due in April (eeeeppp)

*We are loving being close to family and driving home

for the holidays was such a blessing

*We have found an incredible home church that we both love, seriously it's awesome!

All this goes to show that all the worrying and stress I put on myself a year ago was for absolutely nothing. I do understand that sometimes things don't always work out "perfect", such as having our dream wedding we had worked for over a year to plan be completely turned upside down with my sweet mothers untimely death two days before saying "I Do", but in all situations I think it's important to recognize that God has his hand on us and loves us enough to have a plan for our lives. 

I love the saying "Let go and Let God". I feel it's a phrase that sums up all of that with one simple saying. Look around and try and find the positive, don't stress, and love each day you have on this earth with your loved ones. Who knows where you will be a year from now and who will no longer be here with you. Someone in our new bible study that we started attending this morning said, "are all the things you worry about, stress out over, and get mad about going to matter in 10 years...100 years...or even 10,000 years?". Most likely the answer is no, so why worry? God has us all in the palm of his hand. All this to say, we should treasure every day, the good, the bad, and the ugly as it's all a part of a greater plan!

Dollar Rides and Holiday Fun

The hubs and I celebrated our very last Christmas together as a family of two last week! We were so blessed to be able to drive home (sooo much better than those icky christmas eve flights we had to take the last two years) and spend the holiday week with our family and friends back in Georgia. I know that with being a part of the military this may not always be possible, heck next year for all we know we could be celebrating the birth of Baby Jesus in Alaska, so we both really soaked up the time we had at home and ease with which we were able to travel to see everyone!

We were also able to reflect on how different the holiday season will be next year with our little one being almost 9 months old!! It's such a crazy thought to me and doesn't even seem like it's going to be a reality that we will have a little miracle to tote around this time next year. It was incredible to see how genuninly excited most of our family members were to know that next year Baby Charlotte will be among all of the Etheridge clan and celebrating the holiday season with us. We can't wait :)

Winston was clearly not as excited as we
were about the car ride home..I think
 he was happy to not have to spend Christmas
alone again this year though ;)

Love this man!

25 week bump!

Sisters!

All the "kids"

In other exciting news my stud of a husband had his dollar ride (aka first flight) in the Raptor right before we came home! I was lucky enough to be able to go and snag some photos of his flight which was an incredible experience. For those of you that have been with us from the beginning, or at least following the blog for almost a year, know that this has been a long journey for us. From being accepted to the Air Force Academy to dropping a Raptor after pilot training he's come a very long way and it's taken a VERY long time to get to where he his now. I couldn't be more proud of his dedication and determination to make it to this point. As I was standing up in the tower taking pictures I was incredibly excited and nervous for him and overwhelmed with emotion at the thought of all the hard work that had gone into that very moment he took of in the Raptor for the first time! You can blame that on the pregnancy hormones if you'd like though, I'll allow it.  I sure am one lucky lady though to be able to stand by his side throughout this incredible adventure ;) 

Love, 

The Etheridges

Photo Update 12/13

Life around here has been pretty quite since we got back from being home for Thanksgiving, hence the lack of posting. However I was perusing through the hubs photos on his phone yesterday and came across a few that would make for a somewhat satisfactory post...so here ya go ;)

We found this deadly friendly fella on our walk
with Winston last week! Yikes! 

In case you haven't heard we have bears here on base! These
guys love to get into the trashes and cause all sorts of problems
for the housing company. I've yet to see one, only the "evidence"
they leave behind, but the hubs snapped this photo on the way
to work the other week.

Yes this photo is from Halloween. Yes it's December.
But hey, better late than never right? 

Baby Charlotte already has her stocking ready to go for next
years holiday festivities ;)

Also, (as you can see above) we finally settled on a first name for our sweet little girl, Charlotte! It was the first name that we both really loved and it just seemed to stick. We're still stumped on the middle name, so I'll get back to you on that later, but hey, at least we're half way there with figuring out what to call the little munchkin! As far as a baby update goes, I had my 24 week appointment this week and everything looks great! Baby Charlotte is very healthy, growing right on track, and is VERY active...like her daddy! We didn't get to see her this last time but I'm hoping at my next appointment we will get more photos of her!

Love,

The Etheridges