Vacation mode starts now!

5 / 19 / 171 / 10 / 18

When I lost my job in March we quickly canceled our annual vacation, adjusted our spending and started living in survival mode. It was such a scary time until just this week.

I’ve taken on some consulting work, we’ve moved around a few things and we were blessed with some surprise funds. Now I finally feel like I can breathe again! And I am so excited about growing my business and spending at least the remainder of the year staying home with BabyCoolJ. Not to mention I can search for my dream job in the process! God is so good.

While we would be packing right now for Mexico (oh, I’ll miss the white sand beach, unlimited drinks and food…not to mention hammocks!) we have found ourselves overly grateful for the gift of TIME. There is no measuring time with my 20-month-old!

But, now we get to plan for something else! Mi Amor’s birthday is the 25th, and while we won’t spend it with drinks at the beach, we may be enjoying drinks by the pool! We are taking a mini-getaway just down the road San Antonio so we can sleep in, relax and eat unapologetically. It will be an awesome few days!

I also planned something special for Mi Amor. Seeing that it’s his 40th, and my love language gifts, I made/bought/threw together 40 gifts! It was super challenging seeing that I had no money to spend, but with our blessing this week I’ve been able to pull a few last minute items together. I’ll share those 40 items in a blog post next week to help inspire others!

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone! I know I will – I’m kicking it off tonight with a girl’s night!

#MusicMonday: Yo, I’ll solve it

5 / 15 / 171 / 10 / 18

I love this lyric for a few reasons. While I know both men and women are problem solvers, I see this as a quote ending with “mom.”

Seriously, ladies, we can solve anything! As a girl growing up, I always felt invincible. I could do anything I wanted, solve any problem that came my way. I was strong and determined. Then, I became a mom.

Problem-solving has never looked so unglamorous, yet impressive. Like, last Monday, I stopped at Sprouts with BabyCoolJ and kept him in his stroller with a reusable bag strapped to the handlebar. There I go, filling it up while bribing my kiddo with snacks to keep his cool. Well, they had a few sales so I ended up filling up the bag, placing items under his seat, carrying 3 large pizzas and a box of something. After checking out, I carried four full bags (including the heavy reusable one) while pushing his stroller. Loaded him up, loaded the food, put the stroller away, then caught my breath.

Funny thing is it wasn’t THAT challenging, but just the same week I had a memory on Facebook that went like this: “Nothing like running through the rain in heels with bags filled with 15 bunches of bananas….and a Starbucks coffee.” And I remember how accomplished I felt! Nothing compares to my challenges in life now…just ask a mom of a 1-month-old! But no matter the season of life, girls can do anything.

Regardless if you’re a mom, married or single, I encourage you to remember that you can solve anything. YES, you can. So just do it. Get it, girl.

Celebrating moms

5 / 14 / 173 / 25 / 18

Yesterday, Mi Amor and I took BabyCoolJ to Little Land to have some fun and let out some much-needed energy. It was really empty, except for a large Latino family, and two other (white) dads with their kids. Mi Amor and I began chatting about culture, and where we grow up, and how they play such an influence on our lives. I’ve seen moms post that they are doing spa days, getaways and girls nights. Such a different world to what we grew up knowing. Moms, at least 3 generations, would gather together over large meals and celebrate with their full families. If we were back in our hometown, we would have 4 generations celebrating on my side, and 3 generations on my husband’s. It is a beautiful thing!

But, because I refuse to travel with a 20 month old, we will celebrate in our little family of 3. We will celebrate together, through the tantrums, fighting the naps and each and every “mama” and hug. (although, I could totally go for a spa day, too!)

My son is my world! I can’t believe how many memories and how much LOVE #babycoolj has filled me with, all in under 2 years! I cherish every moment, and I am grateful to God for the blessing it is to be this kiddo’s mama. And what a blessings moms are. Thank YOU for all you do. The sleepless nights, the selfless acts, sharing your food, your bed and all your space. Giving up your time, your body and your night outs. I never quite understood it, or appreciated my mom as much, as I do now that I am a mother. YOU all are amazing.

And, on the note of amazing, I have to add what an amazing God we have! Today our pastor preached about faith. It tied in so perfectly with what God told Mi Amor and me to do this week. Seriously, perfect timing. In fact, he shared the story of Isaac in Genesis, and how Abraham’s servant was told to go find him a wife. How perfect was it that he trusted in God when he met Rebekah (see verse 12), and that God provided such a clear message for him. He did that for us too, and he was showing us once again that we were to walk in faith. We closed it up with moms praying for our children, faithful prayers of who they will become and who they are created to be. Everyone else prayed for the mothers in the room. Perfect start to my Mother’s Day!

Be blessed everyone!

Walking out in faith: How radical obedience changed my life

5 / 13 / 174 / 29 / 18

Heads up: This post was updated April, 2018. Some of the links on this page are affiliate links which means and you can read more about that here.

Y’all, something huge just happened last night!

So, let me preface this by saying I am currently reading What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa Terkeurst. I have faith and trust in Him, however I struggle with discerning on His vs. my thoughts/desires/ideas. Lots of crazy stuff enters my mind and I don’t know where it is coming from!

Lisa in the sky with dandelions

4 / 30 / 17

Hi there! Welcome to my little space on the interwebs (I love that word). I am in a new season of life, in a life that is constantly changing, so I decided to start writing about a few of my favorite things: faith, being a wife and mama, music and some sprinkled in reviews.

I’ll start off with music, and the rest will totally fall into place. See, I’ve always loved music. Not in the kind of way my husband does, though. I can’t tell you the name of half the songs I listen to or know a lot of band/singers names. However, I can tell you how I feel when I hear a song. I naturally move along to most music, and music brings joy to my heart. I can even remember what was going on in my life with certain songs. (hello, international music and working at a club in the “Valley” in 2000!)

In 2008, after spending a year in New Zealand, I found myself back in the Valley trying to figure out life. I got a great job so I stuck around. They actually have a pretty great, lively music scene in the Valley, so I found myself out often catching a good show. That fall, I met my future husband. He was a hip-hop artist, and I became a quick fan of his music…not to be confused with a fan of HIM! We stayed acquaintances and eventually became friends before dating in 2010.

I share this because he represents music to me. Not only because of how we met but because it was our mutual love of music that brought us to the faith together. In 2011, we decided to visit a church. This mega-church had the best worship music, and we quickly fell in love with the idea of being regular attendees. In fact, we never missed a day other than when we went out of town.

In the fall of 2014, Mi Amor (aka husband) and I were married. It was the BEST DAY EVER, at least up until that point in our lives. We never knew what God had in store right around the corner! We purchased and built a home in December, and in January, we found out we were pregnant. For the sake of this blog, you’ll know our son as BabyCoolJ. Our lives have never been the same.

The one thing, outside of God, that has gotten us through it all, music. We have dance parties in our living room, BabyCoolJ begs for pandora instead of TV and musical instruments are spread throughout our house.

So, I’ve dedicated every Monday to another song lyric. I hope you’ll join me on the journey as I continue figuring out how to be a great wife and mama, all while groovin’ along.