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Hello again friends!

I know I have not been very active here on the blog but I have still been busy creatively and in my kitchen.

Like many of you, I am staying at home with my family and trying to lessen the spread of COVID-19. I hope you are all safe and well during this time.

I wanted to drop in real quick to let you know that even though I do not post many blog posts I am active on Instagram and Facebook. If you’re interested in little snippets of life and craft that I share every so often please look me up over there and follow me.

Here I am on Instagram and on Facebook 🙂 (These links should take you right to my pages *thumbs up*)

What are you doing to keep busy while staying home and social distancing? Even though I am helping Sam with his preschool work (as well as cooking/doing dishes practically non-stop), I am also trying to take time to be creative. I’ve completed several bible journaling entries, made a handful of cards to send out to friends and family, and have been trying to get more familiar with my Cricut.

I envy all of the people out there who are using this time to get big projects done… I feel accomplished if I wash the laundry AND put it all away in one day!

Let me know what you’ve been up to! Sending you hugs from a safe distance xoxoxo

Stay healthy!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Romans 15:13

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-78ZPLH8c7/ 

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Sending a little hope in the mail 💜

A post shared by Jessica C. (@modestmoments4.2) on Apr 4, 2020 at 1:47pm PDT

What is Bible Journaling?

Bible journaling is a wonderful way to dig deep into the word of God. It is a way to focus on a certain verse, or many verses, and really break it down to understand it and apply it to your life.

The lovely thing about bible journaling is that it can look different for each person. For me, bible journaling is a way to creatively study the word and fill my heart with its goodness. I want to pull out paints, inks, glue, scissors, and get messy while I absorb the word. For another person, it looks as simple as pen and paper while breaking down verses and developing an intimate understanding of those verses.

What do you need to start bible journaling? Literally, you can begin bible journaling with your bible and a pen. It can be that simple. Don’t feel comfortable writing in your bible? No worries, grab a notebook! Are you feeling creative and crafty? Fantastic! Me too, let’s play together.

Think about how you want to dig into the word and “you do you” 🙂

When I first started this adventure I did not have a journaling bible and I did not feel confident enough in my abilities to work in my bible. My solution was to grab a blank art journal that was collecting dust in my basement and began to experiment (read: play). I never realized how much I would love the whole process!

I decorated the cover with patterned paper, frame embellishments, and a wooden die cut butterfly to personalize this journal into my very own faith art journal. In this journal I have been able to play with different art mediums and slowly built my confidence.

After a while, I felt ready to create some entries in a bible. Hooray! A little searching led me to a single column journaling bible that I purchased from Amazon with a customizable cover. Here is how it looks after I painted the cover. It took me a few months of this bible sitting on my bookshelf untouched before I felt confident enough to touch it. But I am so glad I finally did. This cover reminds me that I am not perfect and I am a complete mess sometimes, but best of all I am loved by God.

There are so many wonderful options when choosing a journaling bible. Compare them and choose which version suits your needs the best.

Inside of this bible I am thrilled to get artsy and crafty to journal the word. Not only that, I have also fallen in love with the monthly devotional kits from Illustrated Faith. These kits are wonderful for bringing an element of scrapbooking (which I am also obsessed with) into my faith walk through the bible.

Here are a handful of entries I have made using different techniques. In just these few images I can see stamping, ink blending, paint smooshing, stencils, hand lettering, drawing using graphite paper, foiling, and adding embellishments from die cuts. Currently I am working through the January devotional kit from Illustrated Faith 20/20 Vision, the physical kit is all sold out but I have linked the digital devotional if you are interested in working through it as well.

I love looking back in my bible, and in my faith journal to see how far I have come.

Give me an idea of what types of things you would be interested in seeing. Would you like process videos? Step-by-step photos? I’m so excited to share this journey with you!

Hello Again…

Hello dear friends!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have chatted with you all. I hope you have been happy and healthy! Life here has been slowly chugging along in our little town and I have a five-year old! My wild boy is a “big kid” now and I can’t figure out where the time has gone.

Four-year-old Playschool Photo

Obligatory Photo at the Pumpkin Patch

Where have I been? Let me be very honest… shortly after we moved into our house I just lost my motivation. That was almost three years ago! I also started working part-time at the public library which has been a joy, but also a disruption to my original freedom to write and share posts while I was a full-time stay-at-home mom.

Basically, I felt a lot of pressure to try to continuously think of new things to cook and share with you. I also had a lot less free time to do all the steps of writing a post to share with all of my wonderful readers. So, I chose to take a break for a while until I felt called back to Modest Bites.

I still love to cook and eat, but I think it is time that I allow my blog to focus on more than just food. Will I still share food? Of course! But I have many other interests and hobbies that I would love to share.

Something  I am excited to share with you will be my adventures in paper crafting as well as bible journaling. In the last few years I have felt myself growing stronger in my faith and as a way to study the word and grow closer to God I have found bible journaling to be a wonderful outlet for my creativity and learning. I have been so encouraged that I want to share it all with you!

Along with bible journaling I have found a passion in paper crafting and artsy/craftiness. I love it all! Crafting and playing with all sorts of different mediums brings me so much joy that I want to share my crafty adventures with you as well.

What is super exciting is that I am still learning, I have so much to learn! Come play with me and let’s learn together.

Considering the change in focus I am taking Modest Bites I thought about changing the name. But I think I’ll keep it. I’ll still share recipes with you when the mood strikes me and sharing the word of God will fill our soul with a goodness even more important than delicious food filling our tummies.

Jesus told us in John 6:35 “³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

As a young believer I have a lot of faith growing to do. By filling myself with the word and applying the word to my life I know I will grow.

If you get nothing else out of visiting my site I hope you leave with an encouraging word and hope in your heart.

Bless you all! xoxo

~Jessica

 

Bacon Dijon Potato Salad

Fireworks are just around the corner and I’m so excited about that! I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I LOVE fireworks!

Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Getting together with family, enjoying a picnic, sparklers, s’mores, and the glorious sight of big glittery fireworks up in the sky… I love it all! Except for the sweltering heat and bugs, but I can look past that for the right potato salad.

This is the BEST potato salad. I’m serious, the bestest potato salad ever! Should I say it again? The. Best.

After I tried this potato salad for the first time I immediately declared it the best. This is how I will always want to eat my potato salad- bacon, green onions, hard boiled eggs, and tangy dijon… yum.

Rainy Day Toddler Activity: Everyday-Shapes Puzzle

When I am stuck in doors with Sam it can get a little hairy (read: I feel like I am losing my mind). 

His battle for independence, the whining, and his endless supply of energy makes for one tired mama by the end of the day. That is why I am so grateful for simple activities such as this that keep his focus long enough for me to collect myself and drink that cup of cold coffee I made two hours ago. 

Making a super fast puzzle is easy and entertaining for my 2 1/2 year old. Using everyday objects as part of his puzzle is really entertaining to him. 

First, pick out small objects that are safe for your kiddo to handle. I used a key for this but if you have a little one who still puts things in their mouth you may want to pick other mouth friendly objects. 

Also, grab a piece of paper and a sharpie. I always keep scrap paper handy for coloring, notes, and random activities such as this.

Other ideas for objects: tooth brush, hair bow, doll clothes, different sized bottle caps, toy car, cotton swab, rocks, etc etc etc.

The next step is pretty obvious, trace your objects with a sharpie. Please ignore my messy lines, Sam was trying to “help” by climbing in my lap and bumping my hands.

You know how it is, these kids are so darn helpful.

Done! Now let your little work at matching the objects to the shapes on your easy-peasy puzzle.

Ha. Check out the boxes in the background… they are full of picture frames that still need to find places on the wall. These boxes have sat here long enough that they have become part of the decor. That’s okay right?

Sam seemed a little more interested in play fighting (“pay sighting”) with the spatula than anything else. 

I hope this helps entertain your littles for a few minutes so you can enjoy your cold coffee as well!

Sometimes all we need is a few minutes.

Strawberry Cobbler

Summer is nearly here which means fresh berries are becoming more and more abundant and that makes me super happy!

I’m always so disappointed when I grab a beautiful pint of strawberries- bright red, not bruised, and cute as a button… but I bite into it and grimace at the sour taste of betrayal as I look at the bright white center. That’s what I get for trusting beautiful red strawberries in the winter months. I take it as a personal offense when that happens.

Am I being too sensitive?

Where was I going with this? Oh yes… Whenever I am faced with a disappointing batch of strawberries I have to find a way to bring some life into them.

Cue copious amounts of sugar and a healthy dollop of butter.

This dessert is seriously so delicious and incredibly easy! Anybody you share it with will become your best friend and probably try to steal the leftovers from you.

That’s just a forewarning. But make this strawberry cobbler anyways.

Did You Miss Me?

It has been a while hasn’t it?

I have missed you! There are some good reasons I have been M.I.A…. Promise!

First of all… We bought a house!

 

It is in a teeny-tiny town that has one diner, a post-office, a school, and one police officer. My hubby now has a 40 minute drive to work everyday but hey, the house was affordable and it is ours! Before this we rented but decided we were ready to actually own our own home. The problem was… we had a tiny budget for our house and the city we lived in has a high cost of living, unless we wanted to live in a questionable neighborhood or in a tiny run-down house, no thanks! So we found a small town outside of the city with options that suited our needs and our budget.

Our house needs updating but it is ours! I’m so excited about that.

We celebrated Easter as a family in our new home and I am having fun decorating and planting flowers. This place needs more color, and I am definitely doing my best to add as much color as possible.

Another reason I have been missing is because after packing and moving and then unpacking we had a friend come to visit the U.S. for the first time and he stayed with us for a week. I was so busy trying to be the best host I could be that I didn’t even think of sitting down and writing on my poor blog.

Because this was his first trip to the good ol’ U.S. of A. I wanted to make sure he had the most “authentic” American foods I could fit into one week. We had pancakes, french toast (hehe), bacon-egg-cheese biscuits, biscuits and gravy, chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers (twice), and of course we took him out for barbecue, Mexican food, and to a delicious Chinese buffet.  Classic American, am I right?

After he left I basically vegged out in my rocking chair for a week trying to recuperate after all of the craziness that has happened in the last month.

My mother’s day request was to have a nice family day trip to the zoo. Thankfully, we made it out there before I got hit full force with a nasty cold. Urgh, I am a germ magnet apparently.

I just love going to the zoo! I’m the kid who presses up against the glass squealing… except this kid is now 25 years old and not so cute. I did my best to wait for the crowds of actual children to get a view of the animals before I squeezed in with my camera.

My favorite animals to see: the elephants, penguins, and the butterflies! Poor hubby, he doesn’t really enjoy the zoo but he puts up with it because he knows I like it so much and he wants Sam to enjoy it too. He’s such a sweetheart!

Well, that’s all for now! I hope to have some recipes to share with you here real soon!

TTFN! (Ta-ta-for-now!)

Shepherd’s Pie

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Bust out the green beer and the shamrock bead necklaces, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Me? I’ll be sitting at home, wearing my customary green outfit and eating leftover Shepherd’s pie. Sounds like my kind of party!

Don’t forget to wear green, you don’t want to get pinched!

Anyways, back to the food. Mmmm food… I grew up eating shepherd’s pie with my mom, although her version was a bit different than this.

Shepherd’s pie has always been a favorite meal for me. What’s not to love? Flavorful meat and veggie filling all topped with glorious mashed potatoes.

Happy Pi (3.14) Day!

It Pi day! Hip hip hooray!

It is becoming a tradition in my household to play around with different pie recipes for this oh so special day. This last weekend I decided to make savory meat hand pies one day and the next day I used the same idea to make an Irish Meat and Potato pot pie. Yum!

I deeply apologize for not having recipes to share with you for those yummies, BUT I felt like there were places I could definitely improve upon the flavor and texture.

I needed more gravy! Story of my life…

So anyways, I basically cooked up a mixture of ground beef, onions, carrots, diced potatoes, and made a gravy with a splash of Guinness and beef broth, bake that in a premade refrigerated pie crust and you have Irish Pot Pie! *I accept responsibility for that run on sentence.* Not too difficult and tasty! When I am happy with the recipe I will share it with you. Sound good? Good.

On the other side of the pie spectrum you can celebrate Pi day with pizza! Sometimes referred to as pie, pizza is a perfectly acceptable meal to celebrate this righteously mathematical day!

Need some recipe ideas for today? Look no further…

Roasted Asparagus

Wanna guess how I know when Spring is coming?

When Asparagus goes on sale!

Asparagus goes on sale only 2 weeks out of the year, am I right? Usually, it is a treat to buy a bunch of asparagus because it can run between $3-$4 for one small bunch.

This week it was on sale for $1.60, hallelujah! I couldn’t pass it up.

My hubster isn’t a huge fan of these delightful green stalks, but he’ll eat it to appease me. Our toddler wouldn’t touch it, but I’ll convert him sooner or later!

When you want to enjoy these delicious early spring green vegetables the best way is the simplest way, deliciously roasted with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Perfection…