Make It Happen By Lara Casey

I was curious to read Lara's book since hearing the incredible responses from her talk at the Influence Conference several years ago. A lot of amazing tweets and quotes came from that session, so when I was given the opportunity to review her book, I couldn't resist.

I learned a lot more about Lara from reading this book than I had seen through just glimpses of her life on Instagram, she has a great story with a lot of examples of trusting God with your circumstances. While she did have some great things to say, I will admit that I expected more to this book than was perhaps there. It is pretty much just her story with some wisdom interspersed so it does make for an easy read. 

I did like that there were journaling questions throughout, and while I did not complete them at this time, I do wonder if perhaps I would have got more from the book by completing them. I guess my other main criticism was that being a christian author, I had expected there to be more of a scripture focus. It is obviously written from a christian perspective in places, but still reads very much like a self-help book which just isn't really my thing. 

I still think it is perhaps worth the read for the encouragement and wisdom throughout anyway. But I can't say it is on my top list of books ever read. 

What have you guys been reading lately? 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review from BookLookBloggers, however all views expressed are entirely my own thoughts and opinions 

What I didn't Expect.

So I may have briefly mentioned it before, but I am super stoked to be diving headfirst into the 31 Days series with the Nester which starts today! Lets pretend the post for this evening is finished already and saved, not really! 

But I will definitely write more on that later as I haven't yet finished the last touches on the first post and need to sit down and write ahead for a few days, something I am hoping to fit into my evening tonight! I also wanted to take this afternoon to share some beautiful things from this weekend before diving into one topic for the next month or so. 
Now I could have made this fit into my topic, are you intrigued yet as to what I am writing about? ;) 
But I wanted it to be separate as it totally fits in with today as I am home from our retreat, and feeling incredible despite the teary mess that happened last week over not being able to attend the Influence Conference this year. 

See what I wasn't expecting was that the Lord in His amazing goodness, would sort of allow me to do both. I was able to be fully present and serve over 300 students at a camp this weekend, and still follow the conference through instagram and twitter. At first I found it really hard to be on there as I could see all the things I was missing out on. But then on Friday I felt the urge to pray for the conference instead when I suddenly had 45 mins to sit while the baby I care for fell asleep in the grocery store parking lot. So I prayed, friends I stormed that throne room all weekend for both the conference and the students at the retreat we were at. I prayed with leaders at the retreat who needed encouragement with the students they were working with, opportunities to be more involved in this ministry.


I prayed for all you beautiful ladies who spoke at the conference and followed along as the Lord moved hearts in your sessions & workshops. I prayed for those of you I so desperately wanted to meet, that you would be so blessed by the women you came into contact with! I prayed for those of you who were feeling lonely, that a sweet sister in Christ would find you and spend time with you. And the Lord worked in my hearts friends, rather than feeling sad about not being there. I felt SO privileged to be able to pray for all of you and to see firsthand through social media how the Lord was at work. I was SO blessed by all your tweets and instagrams. 

Some of my favorite tweets:

Courtney Dignam ‏@cjdignam27 Sep

the gospel should be infused into everything we do. @thetinytwig #influenceconf

Nadine ‏@nadinewouldsay27 Sep

Strategy and the Gospel are linked. And the Gospel applies to all areas of our lives. @thetinytwig #InfluenceConf

Nadine ‏@nadinewouldsay27 Sep

You can live in wholeness. And it only comes in Jesus. @thetinytwig #InfluenceConf

Natalie ‏@_nataliepalma27 Sep

We go astray when we add something else to the equation other than Jesus. @thetinytwig #influenceconf

Annie ‏@anniewiltse27 Sep

"Christ is in us, & that's the most humbling & empowering thing at the same time." -@thetinytwig #influenceconf

lindsey ‏@lindseykubly27 Sep

When I feel myself strive, all I have to do is lock arms with Jesus and walk forward with him. @thetinytwig #influenceconf

Jacey Verdicchio ‏@TheBalancedWife27 Sep

I came to #influenceconf for a lot of things, but God is giving me what I didn't even know I needed.

Amy Reed ‏@sweethomesb27 Sep

"My plan didn't work out - but God is STILL good." @SweetnessItself #influenceconf

Anne Bogel ‏@AnneBogel27 Sep

“I don’t want to stand before God at the end of my days and say: It sounded so scary—so I didn’t.” @sniequist #InfluenceConf

Natalie Schlabach ‏@NSPottery28 Sep

"God doesn't want to heal you to use you. He wants to heal you because He loves you." @naptimediaries #influenceconf

Nadine ‏@nadinewouldsay28 Sep

Don't believe the lie that nobody is on your team. @naptimediaries #InfluenceConf

Erin James ‏@SweetnessItself28 Sep

"(the Proverbs 31 woman) doesn't live in a bubble. She lets The Lord mess her up." - @naptimediaries #influenceconf

Julie Hammes ‏@simpleredstitch28 Sep

"influence comes from humble service" @nicksconnolly #influenceconf

I am so so thankful to all of you sweet friends for sharing these pearls of wisdom while you were at the conference, to those of us who were unable to be there! Thankyou from the bottom of our hearts!!!

I am so thankful for so many beautiful reminders! This weekend was incredibly powerful for me in healing my understanding of my completeness in Jesus Christ alone! To remember that He DOES have a plan and it is PERFECT!

I didn't even expect to take away anything but heartache at being unable to attend friends! But I got to be present through social media & the privilege of camping out before the Lord on your behalf! It is SO true, follow Him even when it hurts to not attend something!!

Praying that next year, part of following Him will involve attending the Conference again!

I want to hear how your experience of Influence was??

All Instagram Images belong to those mentioned above. No Copyright intended =)

Summer Photo Drop. [Meet Up With Brooke From Magnolia Grace]

I can't believe I am still sharing pictures from over a month ago friends! 

But I didn't want to not share these with you. I had the opportunity to meet up with Brooke from Magnolia Grace last month and we decided to go to the zoo together. 

She is just such an encouragement to be around! I am so thankful to have met her at Influence last year.

Not to mention she definitely drove a lot more than I did to spend time together. 

We will have to meet again a lot closer to her next time :) 

We had a great time, especially when we found Africa. Who knew it was in Ohio you guys! LOL

We also paid to go on this little train ride which would supposedly take us closer to the African animals which were all hanging out in the middle of an enclosure. Well, this train was SO SLOW you could practically see the grass growing the rocks next to it were faster. All this while we were super far away from the animals, then once we got near them it sped up to get back to the station.

Say what???? 

We were highly amused and laughed so hard at the craziest which was this lame train ride. 

Even the kid behind us is bored.

Looking for our next destination. 

I'm sure the poor guy who we asked to take this shot didn't know what was going on when we suddenly posed.

Any place that serves lemonade with an amazing straw like this is pretty great in my book.

Life Lately LinkUp.

I am super excited to be co hosting with several lovely ladies today for the wrap up of the Life Lately Linkup over at Life on Leroy. 

I had an amazing time meeting Alli at the Influence Conference last year.

She is just so fun to be around! 

So be sure to head over and say hi to the wonderful ladies who are hosting this linkup! 

Link up Rules:

1.) Follow your hosts via GFC or Bloglovin.

2.) Follow your co-hosts via GFC or Bloglovin. 

3.) Link up your life lately posts or any post about your life. 

 

 This is huge part of what I have been up to lately, at least the past 2 weeks. 

>>DETAILS<<

 Receiving sweet encouragement in the mail.

 Enjoying my early Thursday Mornings with a bagel at Panera.

Driving through Fairy tale style neighborhoods.

Enjoying the company of these boys.

Dating this amazing man.

Oops....more Panera in there. ;)

And breathing a sigh of relief that Spring has decided to finally make an appearance. 

Was beginning to think Narnia had settled in and it was going to be always winter in the Midwest ;)

What have you been up to lately friends?

Would love to hear!

Much Love! 

L

Girl Behind The Blog - Your Inner Foodie

I'm super excited about these two sweet friends joining forces for this month's girl behind the blog linkup.

I had the privilege and I totally mean privilege of meeting both Chelsea and Ashley at the Influence Conference last year. 

They are both just some of the sweetest girls you will ever meet. 

I had tons of fun hanging around both of them. 

photo credit: 5ohwifey

So they are doing a VLOG linkup about food this month. 

So anyway I won't spoil anymore except to go ahead and let you watch the video.

Be sure to head over to their blogs and check out some of the other videos.

This linkup is how I made some amazing friends in this blogging community.

The Girl Behind The Blog- Your Inner Foodie

Time limit: Vlogs should be 2-3 minutes long

Do you have a food philosophy? (gluten free, vegan, whole foods, whatever is easiest, kid friendly,etc)

If you could only have two foods for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Do you have a favorite food blogger or place for inspiration?

Share a favorite recipe or link with us!

Smitten Kitchen: Link to amazing cake I talked about.

Resurrection rolls recipe I plan on trying this weekend.

Love you guys! Be sure to check out some of the other videos! 

Such a great community on this linkup.

The Influence Sashes Market & FashionABLE.

During the Influence Conference, there was a beautiful market of homemade items for sale by several of the highly skilled ladies attending the conference.

It was amazing! Seriously some of these women are SO talented.

While most of it is probably not in my normal budget for personal buying, it was fun to browse and 

see all the beautiful things. 

A lot of these would even make special gifts for people. 

The item which particularly caught my attention was one which was highly recommended to us during lunch one day.
The story behind these scarves are incredible!!! (Watch the video below from them to hear more.)

The idea behind the organisation (taken from website):

'Your purchase of a fashionABLE scarf creates sustainable business for women in Africa.  
Our commitment as a non-profit is to the development of people — fashionABLE works with women who have been exploited due to the effects of poverty.  
So, when you purchase a scarf you are providing jobs, and then we send the net profits back to holistically rehabilitate more women. This is the beauty of non-profit….
Scarves provide jobs, profits provide restoration.'

What a great thing to support right, well you even get to purchase these beautiful scarves in order to do so!!! AMAZING!!! I probably would have just done a donation right?
The neat part as well is that each scarf comes with a handwritten note from the lady who made it.

Definitely something worth supporting right??

One more thing......

(Click above picture to head to their site)

That's right!!!

Order before midnight tonight and get free shipping!!!

Totally a gift for someone you know!

Much Love,

L

DISCLOSURE: COMPENSATED AFFILIATE LINKS USED

The Jumbled Suitcase Thoughts.

 This was packing for the Influence Conference almost a month ago.

I realise there are still more things to share from that impactful weekend.

So this is me grabbing coffee with you Saturday morning,  Praising God with you its the weekend.

Catching up on some final thoughts on the Influence conference.

Or more of a jumble of thoughts really.

I had a lot of thoughts about what to wear in the days leading up to the conference.

(As you can tell from the mess in the picture above)

I'm not sure why there was as much thought into my appearance as there was while packing.

Normally, I do take time to make sure I don't have food on my face before leaving the house and things.

But not usually quite so much attention to detail on my appearance.

I think honestly, I was terrified of what people were going to think of me before I went.

So I pulled together my five cutest outfits and packed those.

Still feeling insecure about myself.

So did the other two hundred girls I later found out from reading their posts.

Maybe there were a few who honestly didn't care.

About what others thought.

About what they looked like.

Our insecurities kept a lot of us from getting to know each other, as Kerrie wrote about HERE.

Until God met us that last night in a time of worship. Finally, I could see my sisters in the room.

Sisters in Christ. Where it didn't matter who had the most influence. We were all loved by God.

I echo Kerrie's thoughts on that evening.

The cute outfits were worn and thrown back in the suitcase by the end of the trip.
Forgotten about until it was time to do the laundry.
But the sweet friendships that were made.
The coffees shared among sweet friends.
Those remain, even today.
Blessed to call so many beautiful women, friend.

 These Happy Times // Taste and See 

Much Love,

L