Time Management

" We live and die by our habits"

This last weekend I spent some wonderful time in Milwaukee with my family :) As I spent time with my sister Kim and some of her friends I began to wonder if I work hard enough because they have part time jobs and I don't (yes I'm laughing at that that thought now). But it caused a conversation with the lovely Miss Cassandra and we decided I should make a list of the activities that I feel waste my time and a list of things that I long to do but don't have time for. This is what we came up with:

Wasted Time

      Television

      Facebook

      Pinterest

Things I long for

      More Bible time

      Time to skype with siblings

      Violin Practice time

      Time for a one on one Bible study with a friend

      A Clean house - lets add some time to cleaning

      

As I looked at the wasted time category I calculated the amount of time I'd be willing to cut out of those things. 

 - TV only when Andy and I are relaxing together and 1 show on a lazy afternoon by myself per week

 - Pinterest only 10 minuets 3 times a week

 - Facebook - No more aimless looking - be purposeful, check what you need to check and get off.

Fallowing these things I'll be able to add 4 hours a week of the things that I long for.

I'm excited to see how much of that wasted time I can redistribute to better uses.

One thing about making new habits is that you need to make them easily accessible until they have have become a habit.... SO I did a little decorating that I think will help me pick up my Violin a little more often. (So excited about this one!!!)

Blessings,

Kaitlin 

Fall is already here!!!

Hello Everyone!

I hope your fall is starting out well. (I can't believe its already fall!) I'm loving being back in school instead of being an intern... I feel more at home in this routine that I know so well then I did at my internship where everything was new and unknown to me. As some of you may know this last spring I had decided to add a semester onto my schooling to earn a minor in Quality Engineering. But this summer at my internship I realized that I am not built for that field and thus have no need to add that extra semester... this means that I only have 3 semesters left (counting this one!) While I felt like 2 years was still a long time to be in school somehow only having a year and a half left is feeling so short! So I'm trying to soak up as much of this wonderful, stressful, thing called college.

Hanna at the lake in Monticello at the Fall Retreat with by Bible Study

I am the student president of my bible study this year and we are trying to become a student organization on campus. Over the summer I completed the necessarily paper work to apply, and now we are waiting to see what the student board and another board thinks. It has been fun to be the student president and get things organized and scheduled and to be the contact person for everyone. This year Gary Gilbertson who taught last year is feeling the call to delegate his ministry to more people which is hard and good all at the same time. We don't get to see Gary or have him teach as much but we also have found a wonderful couple, Jon and Janet Chara, that have opened their beautiful house for us and Jan is doing the majority of the teachings this year. Jon is amazing at explaining the old testament and how it speaks to our lives right now and he is also really good at seeing where things tie together in the bible. I'm excited to see what this year will bring if we are able to get onto campus and open our doors to more people.

Last weekend we had a 24 hour fall retreat with my bible study. The retreat was for all of the campuses of Prepare. It was fun to meet more college Christians who share such similar beliefs  Me and 2 girls from my group went to Monticello, and it was such a good time of relaxation and spiritual rejuvenation. 

Next week there is a Career conference at stout so I'll be once again putting myself out there to find a internship. It seems like I shouldn't be already trying to find one but this is when I found the one at SMC last year. I spent a few hours today trying to figure out which of the 54 companies present at the Career fair are within a reasonable driving distance for me which was easier said than done :p

Last night I got out my camera and did some more photos for a time laps movie... the stars pull me in in a way that I can not express... I am always amazed by their beauty and I hope that never changes. To think that God made those just to show off and to give us something to see him by is amazing! I hope you enjoy the short video.

For some reason this video is not very clear.... here is a link to where I uploaded it on facebook. In the lower right hand corner click the HD button to see the stars more clearly.

Stars Time Laps

Blessings and love,

Kaitlin

Baby Fallon

Yesterday at 11:15am Fallon Noel was born to Holly and Nat Bremer :) Fallon is the third of girls for Nat and Holly and my third niece :D I was able to see her last night and my goodness is she cute :) such tiny hands, eyes, nose and well everything! This weekend Holly and Nat are coming up to visit so I'm sure I'll have some more pictures of her soon :)

School is almost here again and I finished my summer internship last week (which went really well) so it has been really nice to have a week off before I get back into the swing of class :) Today I'll be helping my sister Kim move into the Eau Claire dorms :D I'm very excited that she is going to be so much closer to me :)  My mom and sister Kalli are also coming up and will be spending the night at my place :)

I got my books for school :p nine books for five classes.... I guess its just nice that I won't have to carry them all to class everyday :)

O and I could use your help in a photo contest... If you would click HERE and vote for my picture that would be great! :D you can vote once a day but the contest ends tomorrow... My picture is called Falling Snow... and it shows heifers with falling snow :)

Yummy Bars

Here's what you'll need:

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

12oz chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups)

Mix the cake mix, butter and egg together and spread in a greased 9x13 pan. leave 1/2 cup out for latter.

Melt the chocolate and sweetened condensed milk together and spread over the cake mix

Use the 1/2 cup cake mix and place drops of cake mix over the chocolate

Bake at 350 for 20-25 min (until edges of drops are golden brown) allow to cool for 5-10 min.

  

Work Life and God

God, Work, Husband, Cleaning, Cooking,Sleeping... how does one go about fitting all of these things into each day?

Work has been good but so busy. I get up at 6 to be at work by 8 and get home around 5:45... Now while I had thought that I would have so much more free time since I don't have to do homework when I get home it almost feels like I have less free time. I think that is mostly because I don't know what i'm doing at work quite often. I mean really I'm not done with school yet...(i guess that's the point) And not knowing what i'm doing really drains all my energy so by the time i'm home all I want to do is veg on the couch.
Work has been good but very taxing. It is a little stressful to know that things are taking you three times as long as everyone else. And to not know if you are even doing them right. I am starting to enjoy the work and I really enjoy the people that I work with. I am working with one Engineer named Bill on a project for a company and it has been interesting to see just what ME's (Manufacturing Engineer) do. It is much different than what I had expected (not really sure what I expected) and i THINK i like it :p I still have SO much more to learn!
This last week I feel like i have learned just how important it is to keep my house clean. While it is so tempting to get home and watch TV and go to bed i'm learning (a little slowly) that if I keep moving when I get home I can get some things done and that that is what my dear husband really needs. He needs me to work hard for him to keep the house livable. To cook healthy meals instead of pizza and hamburgers all the time. So now I am trying to balance work sleep and a clean house :P

I'm ashamed to say it but I've never been one to have regular quite times. Sure I pray on a daily basis (most of the time) and at one point I listened to my audio Bible every day but to have a time to talk WITH God everyday would be so amazing. I don't know how i'm going to fit it in but i know that i need to that without Him I am nothing and that without connecting with him I will have nothing. He is such a Huge part of our lives and sadly such an easy thing to ignore. We don't see him but that doesn't mean he isn't there waiting for you to talk to him. So go ahead... right now.... say hello to the Lord. Tell him what is on your mind let him know what things you are struggling with what things make you mad at him. What things should be different in the world and what things you are so thankful for. He knows you and he wants you to be honest with Him. He wants you to trust in him.


I hope and pray that you're relationship with him will grow deeper. Tell him what keeps you from him and ask Him to help you overcome that barrier. He wants to help but he needs an invitation so invite Him in today!


I love you all! Have a blessed Saturday evening