I still have all sorts of emotions from this past weekend and am still feeling pretty tired. All I want to do is stay in bed all day long, but that really isn’t quite possible with four little ones. Once my mom asked, “Is Ben still that Prince Charming you thought he was when you were dating?” My answer, “Yes, he is.”
Definitely still in love with (and choosing to love) this guy almost seven years later, even if we occasionally get annoyed and snippy with each other like we did on the way to wedding on Saturday.
Be back to regular blogging tomorrow. In the meantime, baby sister wrote her own letter to middle sister (don’t mind my glasses!). And maybe I can get Ben to find some time to help me finish writing that love story of ours. Love day is coming up after all…
My sister looked absolutely beautiful and it was fun dancing all night long! They had some pretty great music lined up for the night, which included a live jazz band, Me. & Mr. Cassidy made a guest appearance, and Avasa & Matty Love who are pretty amazing. Then, a dj who pumped some fun tunes. My legs are pretty tired now.
I didn’t really get any pictures past being in the hotel room getting ready, but Max Wanger was their photographer, so I am sure they will be much more amazing than anything I would have taken. My girls had a blast dancing and running around. Also, probably cause they ate churros and s’mores galore. What kid wouldn’t have a blast doing that?!!
Baby sister and I cried while seeing our sister walk down the aisle with our dad and I couldn’t help think about the day when I will be watching Ben doing that with our four girls. I hope that day doesn’t come too fast, but I know it probably will. So for now, I will enjoy these sisters staying little and together for as long as possible cause one day they will be grown and posing in picture just like the one of me and my sisters above.
Hi. I am Ruby, the oldest of the Navales kids. I am 7 years older than Reinna so I fondly remember the day she was born. I was in the second grade and my dad picked me up to go to the hospital to meet my little sister. I remember everything so vividly in my mind because I was so excited to have a little sister.
I remember when Rein would cry. That girl didn’t cry a lot, but when she did oh did she wail! No wonder she is the singer. I remember when Rein came home from Kindergarten crying because Michael Lovette kissed her on the cheek. Oh, she was so traumatized. I remember when we found her in my parents bathroom with half her hair chopped off. We had to give her a boy haircut, but I guess that is where her desire to be a hairstylist started. I remember her and my other siblings running around and me yelling at them to get out of my way because I was cleaning. I remember having her and RJ come into my room so I can teach them how to dance. Reinna and I would go crazy dancing together, while RJ stood there refusing to participate because she was shy. Funny cause RJ is really the dancer now! After watching me and the heartbreak I would go through in highschool (boys are dumb in high school), Reinna adapted the motto “Be the villain, not the victim”. and she was the villain alright. She left a string of broken hearts.
When I look back though, the thing I notice the most is God’s grace in her life. That is the main stick that sticks out. She is here today, joined in one with Christian because of God. It is nothing she has done, but all of God’s handiwork.
So as you start this new chapter. Don’t find your joy in finally being married because if you do, you will be greatly disappointed. Don’t find your joy in Christian, because if you do, you will also be greatly disappointed. Marriage is fun, but it is also hard. Be prepared to work. Don’t rely on feelings because feelings will fluctuate and you won’t always feel like loving your husband. Love God. Above all else, always love God. Trust God. Enjoy God. Your life won’t be better now because you are married. Your life will only be better if you love God more each day. Loving God will make marriage even more wonderful. God is the key.
So let’s all raise our glasses not to Reinna and Christian, but to God because it is God who put these two together and it is only God who will make the marriage of two sinners living together work. Cheers!
In my little experience of having 7 years of marriage under my belt here are some things that I think are important.
1. Be part of a church community. Confess your sin to others and let them see how messy you and your marriage is. You need others to help you see the blinders in your life and this will only help you love God and each other more.
2. Always pursue humility. You will fight and sometimes you even be right, but nevertheless always pursue humility.
3. Be selfless. It’s not about you, it’s about your spouse. We are naturally selfish people and this takes a lot of work.
Today, you are getting married. Enjoy it. Don’t worry about that extra fluff that makes weddings look pretty. That is what it really is, just fluff. Those things don’t make a marriage. I have seen God’s grace and goodness in your life as I think about where God has brought you. You are here not because of anything you have done, but only because of what God has done. Don’t find your joy in finally being married because if you do, you will be greatly disappointed. Don’t find your joy in Christian, because if you do, you will also be greatly disappointed. Marriage is fun, but it is also hard. Be prepared to work. Don’t rely on feelings because feelings will fluctuate and you won’t always feel like loving your husband. Love God. Above all else, always love God. Trust God. Enjoy God. Your life won’t be better now because you are married. Your life will only be better if you love God more each day. Loving God will make marriage even more wonderful. God is the key.
The past two days have been filled with lots of flowers. We went to the L.A. flower mart to pick up a whole bunch for my sister’s wedding and I spent most of today putting things together with my mama by my side. I remember when I used to come more frequently to the flower mart to do florals for weddings. I really enjoyed it back then and my mom and I used to work wee into the night preparing. Those were good times with my mom. She is such a trooper.
I worked at a flower shop all through high school and a bit during college, as well as an arranging course, so working with my flowers is one of my favorite things. I still know the names to most of the flowers and I really miss it, but I do think doing weddings are much more stressful now with four kids. It would be so lovely to be able to do things like Chelsea of Frolic. She makes the loveliest arrangements. I so would love to be her assistant!
All I have left to do for my sister’s wedding is bake a strawberry shortcake, make her bouquet and hair wreath, and write my MOH toast. Can’t believe it, but we have one day left! Saturday will be here before you know it.
This week was pretty good as far as meal planning because we didn’t have to buy anything extra for the recipes. It was all stuff we were already stocked with, so it made everything much more perfect!
It is a healthy recipe, but it did not lack in flavor at all! In fact, Ben loved it so much he was licking the spoon that was in the pan, since the sauce went by fast. I paired ours with whole wheat spaghetti and it really made a nice dish. Ben said this was his favorite by far. I didn’t know what chicken scaloppini was so I just used our chicken breast and cut them in half, so they would be thinner pieces. Ben comes home and informs me that scaloppini was chicken pounded thin. I will be sure to try that next time.
I used some drumsticks for the girls, but used mostly chicken breasts. If you like sweet and sour type foods, you will like this recipe. It definitely has tang and zing! The frustrating part, which thankfully one of you warned me about, was that the sauce never really went syrupy. I had to add about 2 tbsp of flour to about a 1/4 cup of apple juice and then mixed that in the sauce while it was simmering and that helped a lot. It took me about 30 minutes to get the sauce to thicken. I liked this dish, but it won’t go on the must-make-again-soon list.
Meals have taken about 30-40 minutes to cook and I cook enough to have leftovers on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We haven’t been able to plan for our vegetable dishes that well, but we do have canned beets, canned artichokes, and other canned veggies on hand to eat along our meals. We try to make sure our meals include some veggies. When the craziness of my sister’s wedding is done, we will get better at including planned veggie dishes. I noticed that the girls have been really enjoying the meals. They pretty much devour their food on the plate. I am glad they are really liking the meals too!
Next week we will be recuperating from my sister’s wedding and will have family in town, so not sure what our dinners will look like as we will likely be meeting up with family. We will go super simple on our meals and I am just going to try out one new dish and cook one of the new recipes we just tried.
Week of 2/5 – 2/9: Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs (though, we likely won’t be eating at home) Tuesday: One of our Trader Joe’s dinners
Wednesday: Citrus Soy Squid on Buckwheat Noodles (Ben bought some frozen squid on sale, so I thought this might be a good time to try it.) Thursday: Chicken Piccata (since Ben loved this so much) Friday: Pizza or something super easy
If you are joining along, how is your meal planning going? Also, please share with me your favorite recipes. I would love to possibly try them!
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
