1. This has been on my foodies Pinterest board for awhile. I finally made this week and now  I’m wondering why I waited so long! It was delicious and everyone loved it! Quick, simple and healthy. Gotta try it!

2. Lookey lookey who got new glasses. Yep, just jumping in with the trend and going with the bigger dark rim glassess. I like. You?
*Sidenote: Did not get my hair chopped off like my Mom thought, just in my everyday ponytail:)

3. Two weeks from tomorrow I will be running a local half marathon. I am excited and getting to that point where I just want to do it! It’s been a great session. I’ve enjoyed doing it with a friend. This is the most consistent I’ve been with doing weekly speed work outs and lo and behold I do see a difference! Hoping to get a PR!

4. He’s baaaaaaack! The cast came off Monday and he hasn’t looked back since. The smile when it first came off was priceless!

5. Going on a road trip this weekend to parents in Ohio. Kids have packed their travel bags. We’ll leave as soon as school gets out! My parents house has been “home” to me since second grade. There is always a physical sense of relief as our car merges off the exit to my parents house. Sigh. Of. Relief. I can actually sit down and relax when I’m there. There aren’t the 100 million little things I can see that need to be done when I’m here in our own home. Don’t get me wrong, I love our home but it’s just different. Not to mention two eager grandparents that want to do everything they can with their grandchildren. Christmas was our last visit and basically the last time I sat down and relaxed so it’s time to visit again. I’m joking…kind of. But there is NO question, 10 hours round trip of driving is well worth it!

Have a great weekend! Looking forward to that sunshine and warmer weather that is coming our way here in the midwest!

So you may or may not have heard about this crazy phenomenon going on around YouTube called the Harlem Shake. A couple of college student made a random 30 second video of one person dancing with others in the room but paying no attention to the dancing then the video cuts and everyone is wildly dancing with crazy costumes and props. There is no purpose to it whatsoever other than it is FUN.

Well the our family made one and it was awesome! Here are five reasons why I think you should do the same with your family.

1. It’s fun! It’s good to show our kids that we as adults can be silly, crazy and fun. Those are all good qualities to have and ones we want to show our kids.

2. It’s creative! We loved seeing the kids come up with ideas of how the wanted to dress and dance. They all had their own style.

3. Teamwork! It’s good to learn to work together as a team when you are family.

4. Be spontaneous! All too often I get caught up in our schedule and what we should be doing when. This little deal was not planned but merely discussed over our Valentines dinner and then we just decided to do it. Right. Then.

5. Why not?!? Do something that has no purpose but that will be a great memory maker for your family.

What are you waiting for? Go make your own Harlem Shake video and please link it up here in the comments. Have fun and make memories!

And without further ado….The Harlem Shake Barela style!

Happy Friday friends!

1. We got a fun friday going over here. We are celebrating my husband Brian’s birthday today! Woo hoo, 35! Yes, I am the older (and wiser, hehe) of the two of us!

2. My parents came to visit for the weekend. Always fun to have Grandma and Pa here for the kids, not to mention the free babysitting that is about the happen tonight. Date night. Boom.

3. It’s also time to announce the winners of my first ever giveaway for Praying God’s Word for Your Husband

Here we go!

The winner are:
Comment # 8 Jennifer from thesimplepen 
Comment # 14 Sheila from deliberatereader
*** I’ll be contacting you soon to get your info!!!

4. Thank you to those who commented on this week. I wish I could give you all books! You all made me feel so loved!

5. And last here are a couple pics of my kiddos because I just love that much and want to show them off. They are the cutest and the greatest gifts!

Have a great weekend! 

1. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. This week I did minimal decorating on the mantel. As usual, I went with what I had around the house. I cut up some old stationary into hearts and wrapped some twine around the robbin’s egg blue (I’m obsessed with this color) mason jars. Tucked the hearts in for a simple but colorful look. I searched through my fabric scraps and set aside any pink, purple and red fabrics. I cut a bunch of strips of fabric and then tied them in knots to some twine. Nothing too technical here, friends. I cut out some hearts from red burlap and used clothes pins I made last Valentines Day to attach them to the garland. There you have it!

2. Do you know what this is? It is a T-SHIRT rug!  I can’t believe I have taken so long to share this fabulous gift with you. This is my birthday gift from my awesome, super special friend Jenni. I have eye-spied these pretty little things on Pinterest and just love them! Jenni know this, she’s a great listener. This rug is so special because it is made out of tshirts. Me, Jenni and tshirts have a close bond with the many scarves we have made. This rug is made out of all the scraps. I joke (kind of, but not really) that no one is allowed to step on it but me. I love it so much!

3. Mr. Barela and I went out on a hot date on Monday night. We went to an event downtown Indy. We wore our fancy shoes….Like. A. Boss.

4. I posted this pic on my Instagram feed this week. This is a shot of the prayer calendar I use daily for the kids. Each day there is something to pray for. I also use one for Brian. I LOVE using these calendars. It keeps me accountable and it is simple enough that I remember it throughout the day. Several people ask where I got them so I thought I would share. It’s a FREE download from my friend Kat’s blog. This is just ONE of the many great resources she has.

A Mothers Prayer Calendar

Praying Daily For Your Husband

5. And last but not least, I mentioned on Monday I would be hosting my first ever giveaway next week on February 4. I am excited to be able to give TWO readers this book: Praying God’s Word for Your Husband. I had the opportunity to hear the author speak in October at Allume. She was so funny and I loved hearing from her heart how God has led her to pray diligently for her husband. I was challenged by what she said. I am excited to share more about the book with you on Monday and open up the give away! So get ready and don’t forget to come back!

See you all Monday!

This is the 5 on friday the funnies edition.

Here are some cute things the kids have said the last week that have made me laugh. Hope you get a a laugh or two and enjoy your Friday!

1. Theia: Mom do you think Santa wears big read boxers? I think he does because his favorite color is red so I’m sure even his underwear is red.

2. Theia: I think God feels squishy, do you?

3. Mason speaking of his teacher: Mom, she expects me to be perfect everyday and I just can’t do that. I need at least one day off.

4. Me: How long have you been awake?
Kaia: Ummm, we’ve been awake since the time we got up.
Well that clears it up.

5. Mom, do you smell our fartness? (yes, we say fart in our house) I turn around to see both girls waving the their hands toward me. We are pushing our fartness to you because we both farted. Laughing hysterically.

And a bonus because this is too funny not to share.

You know you have no food in the house when one of your 5 year olds says:
Mom what are we doing today besides going to the grocery?

And the other one says:
Did we make it to payday yet?

Happy Friday friends! We are off to the grocery!

1. New for 2013 I started writing one thing that happened during the day. It could be simple, funny, a hard thing, blessing whatever. Just one thing that stands out to me. My goal is to keep this up all year long then come 2014 I will go back to the January 1 card and start over. I think it will be fun to go back and remember the different things that happened on that day. Who knows if I am really on the ball, over the year the cards will be full of all kinds of things! When I am old and grey (or grey-er) the kids will one day look over the cards and get a snapshot of our days long ago. Haha…that just all sounds kind of funny but it could be cool so I’m going with it.

2. Did a little skateboarding decorating in Mase’s room last week. The old skateboards were give to me by the local skate shop and BOOM we made two shelves and a coat rack. Love it. Happy boy and happy mom because his room finally has some sort of direction and style. I’m sure I was the only bothered by the lack of decor but it’s all good now!

3. I eye spied in my neighbors yard some pallets the other day. You know how I love myself some pallets! So like any normal, upstanding citizen I hopped the fence and helped myself. Haha, I kid. I kid. I asked first then I hopped the fence and picked out 3 pallets: 1 big one and 2 small ones. I have never seen “baby” pallets! They are too cute! I have some ideas rolling around in my head so you’ll just have to wait and see!

4. You may remember this post where I told you were implementing Lego jars for behavior. Much to my surprise we have stuck with it and even better we have seen a change in the kids behavior. They are highly motivated by Legos, I tell you! The girls recently filled their jars for the first time, Mase is getting close. For Kaia’s reward she chose to have a friend over for dinner and movie in their jammies. Theia chose ice cream with Daddy. In the last minute she begged for Kaia to come along. I guess when you’re a twin you get to enjoy double rewards.

5. Really this picture says it all. Life with my girls is always an adventure.

Have a one of a kind weekend friends! Don’t miss out, there are good things to come of it I’m sure!

1. Monday brought a huge surprise to us SNOW! I know seriously, wasn’t I just outside raking leaves in shorts and a tshirt? Yes, yes I was. Welcome to Indiana. But honestly, did not mind at all. It got me excited just a bit for the season to come. So much so that I’ve been playing Christmas ever since. Oh yes I have. It only took the girls 2 minutes after seeing the snow to get out there and run around. I love this pic!

2. This little number is now on our counter top. A while back our coffee pot broke. So we started using the pour over method. This makes great coffee and we are kind of cofee snobs but for a multi tasking mom this is not my preferred method. I’ve been working on Brian to switch back to the good old coffee pot but he has been reluctant. Finally, we made the switch, went BIG (major sarcasm) and bought a $15 coffee pot from Wal Mart. But let me tell you it is programmable, it makes great coffee and I love it. I am so happy about my morning coffee right now. I tell you it’s the little things.

3. This week I made these peanut butter and banana muffins  fromt the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and they were a-maz-ing. And to top it off they are good for you too. I altered the recipe slightly. Instead of cauliflower puree I added butternut squash. I also added wheat germ just because, so I increased the banana puree so they wouldn’t get dry. Perfecto-mundo! I will definitely be making these again!

4. When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner I am the appetizer gal. Works for me because I could eat a meal of only appetizers. As you may have guessed I have beens scouring pinterest for some scrumptious apps. I found this pin the other day…all kinds of dips. Yes, that is all you need to say. I am in. I’m thinking some sort of cheesey dip and then a carmel dip with apples. Sweet AND salty therefore everyone will be happy until the real spread of food comes out!

5. We took a family trip to Wal Mart this week for eye appointments for Brian and I. I am basically blind and very much need glasses. Been wearing glasses since second grade, got contacts in sixth grade. It’s a part of who I am. Brian on the other hand barely qualifies for glasses but gets them more for a fashion statement. Haha, yes this is true. But let me be the first to say, he looks mighty fine in glasses so I’m all for it. We decided to order glassess from Warby Parker. They are priced reasonably, have a great selection and best when you purchase a pair they give a pair away to someone who needs them. Love this. Can’t wait to get them! Pictures coming soon…

Happy Friday friends! Enjoy your weekend. Do some relaxing, it’s good for you!

1. Are any of you other moms out there getting tired of being asked 5,000 times a day “can I have a piece of candy?” From the moment they finish breakfast till the moment before bedtime! After a week and half of this it’s gets to be a little much. This is by far my least favorite part of Halloween. Well I am about to impart a little secret to help with this problem. Drum roll please….. Candy brownies! Have your kids pick out their favorite chocolate candies (twix, snickers, milky way etc). Have them select quite a few and let them know they are going to get to eat them ALL. Chop them all up or throw them into your food processor. Make some brownie batter, pour all that chopped up candy into the batter and bake as normal. NEXT: this is key don’t miss it. While the brownies are baking THROW THE REST OF THE CANDY AWAY. This is the end of the question asking because now you all get to enjoy yummy brownies with lots of candy in them. The pan of brownies will be gone by the end of the weekend. At least this is true in our house. End of story with the Halloween candy. You are welcome.

2. My husband took a couple days off of work due to several weeks of heavy travel. Yay! I had just gotten the girls off to school when he called and asked what I was doing. I said I had exciting plans of cleaning the house and catching up on some email. Then the sweetest words came out of his mouth. “The kids are all at school, why don’t we hang out and get some coffee?”. Um, do I want to hang out with my husband in the middle of the day on a Thursday with no kids? Well, of course! Who wants to clean the house? Not I. We went to the mall and walked around and talked and just enjoyed each other. In the middle of the day. On a Thursday. Wonderful.

3. At the mall I found some killer boots at Urban Outfitters. I’m always looking for the perfect boot for me. This is hard to come by for a gal like me when I am not quite 5 feet tall. That’s right, you read correctly. 4′ll to be exact. Most high boot are WAY too high for me and take up 75% of my leg. Not kidding. So this makes for a very awkward look. But not these boots. These boots were pret-ty awesome. I subtly, not so subtly reminded Brian that my birthday was 3 weeks away.  Hint. Hint. Oh and you can’t see it in the pic but the best part is there is a zipper that runs all the way up the back. Love it.

4. At Allume (the blogging conference I attended 2 weeks ago) I came home with a ton of books from my swag back and then more just given away throughout the weekend. Pretty nice! So many. Most of them I am really excited. Here are my top 4 choices that I would like to read first. Have you read any of these? Any of these on your list?

5. Lastly, I took this picture this week. I love it. I love the colors and the background but more than anything it’s what the picture says. This is Theia following Mason. She LOVES her big brother. She looks up to him in so many ways and hangs on his every word. Yes, they butt heads quite often but she is always the one asking when Mason is going to be home from school. They aren’t just brother and sister but friends.

Friends, how is it Friday again already? I do not know. None the less, I am happy to welcome in another weekend! Enjoy!

1. Halloween has come and gone and the candy overflows. Here are our little trick or treaters. A zombie skateboarder (I don’t know), Ariel and Tinker Bell. Our neighborhood does Halloween right with a community potluck, warm chili, lots of kids and a bonfire afterwards. Seriously it’s like straight out of a movie! And I love it!

2. Tonight we are having an overnight visitor! I love having people come and stay with us, especially when it’s one of my favorite people like Jaime. Jaime was a friend of one of my best friends growing up. Through that mutual friend we have become friends. Did you follow that? Basically we are all friends, I love her and I am super excited to have her here. Although, my girls are not too happy she is not bringing her two girls along with her. And I hear the same is true for her. Sorry girlies, next time! Jaim excited to hang out with you friend!

3. For the last 5 weeks it has been a crazy schedule around here of Brian and I traveling. I hardly every travel alone and I did twice this month. We have flip flopped travel dates 5 times. Seriously, I think we have spent less than 10 days together this month. You know for a married couple that just doesn’t work well. Kaia confirmed this yesterday. She said, “Mom there isn’t much between you and Dad. What do you mean? I asked. Well you never see each other and you hardly ever hug.” Awesome. I agreed with the not seeing each other much lately but had to disagree with the hugging part. I am hugger people. I am also hoping for and looking forward to some downtime as a family. All 5 of us!

4. This week when the girls were at school I had a date with myself at Starbucks. Super exclusive. I took a pic of myself and several people asked about my scarf. It’s from Dayspring, which was a sponsor at Allume. I love it!

5. Last week we implemented a couple new behavior systems in our home. Behavior systems sounds intense but I don’t what else to call it. We saw the need to step up our game with certain behavior issues. Enter in the Lego jars. We have a couple friends that do something similar so we can’t take the credit here. For our family we are working on 2 things. TWO THINGS. Keeping it simple here folks. Legos can be received for the following:

1. Obeying on the first time.  aka first time obedience (I say this multiple times a day)
2. Serving others and showing kindness without being asked. This could be to each other, a friend, neighbor, stranger.

Ground rules: It’s not a guarantee you will get a lego in your jar each time you do either of these. You can not ask to receive a lego (kinda missing the point here kids). Also, legos are not taken away, though it is tempting at times I admit. God does not work this way with us though, thankfully!

The kids decided together on 3 rewards they could choose from when their jars are full independently. So far it is working pretty well. It is our prayer that these attitudes will become ingrained in them sooner rather than later without receiving a lego. I really don’t want to be handing out legos to my teenagers. I’ll let you know…

Do do anything in your home to encourage good behavior? I would love to hear about it! Share with us!

Have a great weekend friends! And don’t forget it’s time change, enjoy that extra hour of sleep! 

1. We officially have two 5 year olds in the house. I say officially because 2 weeks ago we unofficially celebrated their birthdays with a bowling party. That’s right ten kids bowling.  Both Brian and I were out of town on their actual birthday (who does that!?!) so when the calendar means nothing to you and someone tells you it’s time to celebrate your birthday, no questions asked that’s what you do. As far as they were concerned they’ve been 5 since their party but it was on the 14th five years ago that these two little ladies came into our world. Our hearts have never been the same. Happy official birthday Theia and Kaia!

2. Eleven years ago tonight was my last night as a single woman. I remember it so clearly. I had my last sleepover with my best friend and maid of honor, Amie. Ahhhhh, memories. Anyways…Tomorrow we celebrate 11 years being married! Seriously, we are getting old or something. How did this happen?! But despite the getting old part it just keeps getting better. I think of it this way: You know how jeans just get better with time? New jeans are awesome, one of the best feelings in my opinion but they feel a little stiff at first. You have to work on them a bit. They need to be stretched and put through the wringer a couple times to really break them in and have them feeling good. To have them fit you just right. And the more you wear them, the longer you have them, the better they feel. That’s how I feel about marriage. It keeps getting better especially after it’s been stretched and grown over time. Yep, Brian is like my fave pair of jeans times hundred

3. Can’t get enough of the amazing colors that are right outside our front windows. I love our neighborhood always. But especially in the fall. So good.

4. Next week I am leaving for Allume. There has been a lot of talk about bringing business cards to share. I was back and forth on this one. At first it felt like I was promoting myself and my very small space in the really big blog world. But when I thought about it some more and looked at it as just an easy way to share my info with the new friends I will be making. So I decided to do it. I came up with my own. Nothing fancy here. But I am all about the cool washi tape I found at Michaels to use! So if you see me at Allume, humor me and ask for my card and I will ask for yours and then we’ll be fast friends, I know it!

5. I’m sure most of you know about the 31 days series happening in October hosted by the The Nester. Over 1200 hundred bloggers are writing on one single topic of their choice every single day in October. The topics range from A-Z. Some great reading! I’m really only keeping track of two in particular, my fabulous friends Amie and Christie. Amie is passing on tips of this and that. Little things about life, decorating, crafting and such that she is sharing with her readers. It’s great and I have learned a thing or two! Toothpaste to hang pictures?!? Who knew! Christie is sharing what life is like as a small town girl. Specifically in her small town of Tennessee. What great things her town has! So much so I think I’ll be planning a trip in the near future to come see for myself. I’m a sucker for some good ice cream. Yes, Christie I just invited myself to your house and we will go to the Sugar Shack. Check these blogs out for some good weekend reading friends. You won’t be disappointed by my two friends!

Thanks for reading friends! Have a great weekend!