She resisted a wild craving

Last night I wanted ice cream real bad.   The kind of real bad where you can imagine what it tastes like and you are imagining ordering lots of extra chocolate, caramel, and almonds on top.

Unfortunately I had not one single item in my house that even slightly resembled a dessert.  That is if you don't count the the organic cliff z bars for kids.

Even though Chris and I now live near civilization and could actually drive to Marble Slab and be back at the house in 20 minutes ---- I resisted.  I did not leave and go get ice cream at 8:30 at night.  

I just needed to let y'all know that I was a little proud of myself.  

But please --- give all the credit to my husband who convinced me that laying with him on the couch was way more satisfying than ice cream.  Also note that I am still thinking about the ice cream.

Decorating excitment

So I have a decorator.

I am really excited.  It is Liz from A Little Peace of Home and later on this afternoon we are going shopping at some of her favorite stores.  

She came over this previous Monday and we went room by room trying to capture a vision.   I love decorating but I feel completely lost while doing it.  I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have someone there with you who knows what you want to do and knows how to help you accomplish it.

Decorating is Liz's passion and you can tell because she is excellent at it and knowledge just seeps out of her.

The excitement cannot be contained!

P.S. Part two of the Addition Creates the Big Picture blog will be coming later on today!

Addition creates the big picture

Hi :)

It is finally cold here in Houston.  It rained for the first time in about six weeks and the rain brought the cold.   Houston's cold is unlike many places in the world.   Houston has humidity.  Humidity + cold = bone chilling.   A Houston 45 degree day with humidity is absolutely frigid - almost unbearable.   A Denver, Colorado 45 degree day is beautiful and requires only a long sleeve t-shirt.   Humidity --- it's a game changer.  Humidity, a small factor in the greater scheme of things, when added with several other elements completely changes the big picture.  It's the little things .....

I was talking with one my good friends this past weekend in Dallas about what it looks like to completely abandon oneself to God on a day to day basis.   She was asking and wondering, same as me, what that looked like and where are the women in this world that are good examples of this.   I was just as equally stumped as her as to how to answer this question.

In the past year or so I read Francine Rivers biography on her website.   In in she states the each of her books that she has written is her trying to figure out a question in her life.   The book is a result of her looking at all the possible answers and allowing God to guide her to something more concrete.   This little tidbit of information has kind of just living inside of me for awhile, and this week it came back to my mind.

The past three days have been somewhat of "doozies" for me and Chris.  I cannot go into all the details because some of the situations involve people other than me and Chris.   As I said in my last post we have recently just bought a house and are in the throws of putting it together.  The thing is we have only been in town one weekend since we moved in!  Since we moved into Houston, i.e. civilization, we have had the opportunity to hang out with lots of people that we usually do not get to see very often.   This is great and wonderful and everything I wanted - it is just my house and my life are not all wrapped up with pretty bows on them.  I still have boxes to unpack, mini blinds to hang, furniture to buy, closets to organize, grass to mow, and lots of things in the house to fix.   So take a new house that needs fixing, going out of town a ton +  not having a lot of alone time + lots of ends left untied + un-fun people situations and you get: A Chris and Jess duo who are tired and running a little emotionally thin.

The amazing thing is God has grown the two of us up enough to have peace in these "not so perfect" times which has been pretty mind opening.   I have realized that you can have trials in your life and still maintain peace, joy, and stability.   The way you do this is to lean on God everyday --- you decide to abandon yourself to Him on a moment by moment basis.

This morning I had just come to a place where I did not anything left inside of me to give.   I had a good cry and called my friend Julie and she prayed for me.   I then sat down with my bible and remembered what Francine Rivers had said in her biography --- that basically these great masterpiece novels that she has written are the result of her having unresolved questions in her life and her allowing God to answer them.  So I straight up asked God -- What does it look like to completely abandon myself to you, everyday?

For so long I wanted this answer to be one of those ground breaking, light bulb lighting, earth shattering realizations that completely change you instantly.   But, for some reason this morning I was ready to receive the completely normal and non-earth shattering answer God had for me.   It is this:  abandoning yourself to God everyday means that you choose God in every single situation.

 How do you do this practically? John gives a good description in 1 John 2:4-6 " If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived" (The MSG).  The great big picture that we all see down the road, the big picture we are all aiming for, to get to the end of life and have God say "well done good and faithful servant" is made up of many little decisions that many times no one even knows about.   


Abandoning myself to God is a choice that I make each and every day.   It means that I read the bible whether I feel like it or not.   It means that I memorize scripture so that I have some good solid ground to stand on when my emotions start becoming a hurricane inside of me.   It means making decisions about how I am going to react to certain situations before they even happen.  It means having people people in my life that also live out God's word and can speak God's word into my life.  It means applying God's word to my life and not JUST reading it.


Practically and applicably (because I mean what's all this if it does not apply to the really really small things):
1. Choosing to get up early enough or making time at the end of the day to read the word 
2. Believing God's truth when the enemy starts lying to me about myself and my life.  Example: Two weeks ago we had a plumbing issue in our house and my thoughts started running wild.  Thoughts like: We chose the wrong house, nothing can go right, I am never going to get all the furniture I want, I am going to have poop floating down my hall way, I want to scream and cry and have a nervous breakdown.  As many of you girls know these thoughts happen a lightning speeds and your emotions quickly follow.  So in the course of about 20 seconds you are in the great blue funk and hysterical.   BUT - in that moment I CHOSE to not believe ANY of those thoughts and to take each thought captive into the obedience of Chris [2 Corinthians 10:5].  Guess what? I did not have a nervous breakdown and was calm and peaceful and absolutely everything with the plumbing was fixed about $45.
3. Disciplining myself to do things that my flesh absolutely does not want to do but is good for me like: getting enough sleep, eating right, exercising, having wise counsel around me, cleaning the house, being productive ......
4. Deciding to not compare myself to other people or care what they think.   I found that if I start caring what other people think about me and my life then I start isolating myself from people ... and that is not what I want.   I want to love people and people generally want some lovin! Practical application: Having people over at my new house when it is not decorated or something is broken and being confident about it and welcoming them into my home.  


It is when you start adding up all these small decisions that the big picture starts looking really great.  All of these small victories give us momentum for the really big decisions and situations in life.   This is not at all one those romantic truths that sounds good and you quote on facebook, but it is real and it works!  Do not receive these things in legalism like I most certainly would have several years ago.   Everything must be done out of love for and out of reverence of God.  When you do these things BECAUSE you love God and BECAUSE you want to know Him more and be more like Him is when these small battles reveal their great importance in your life!


"We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us." Collosians 1:12 The MSG


love the blog novel writer,

CHANGE --- that we love :)

Howdy y'all :)

Are you enjoying these October days?  I hope yours are filled with lots of pumpkin bread and changing leaves.  We are still enduring temperatures in the mid to upper eighties down here in Houston.    I am longing to wear my boots but it is just still too hot!

It has been since September 6 since I last updated you with my "thoughts".    This is because "life" has gotten in the way of me having too many "thoughts" so I shall give you an update of our "life" and maybe one day my "thoughts" will come back to the blog!

For your viewing pleasure....
The Hill House 2010 Event Calendar has looked a lot like this:

1. Hosted Matt and Lauren Sloan's engagement party and subsequent LSM New Year Barn retreat
2.  Joy and Eric getting married
3.  Houston Rodeo
4. Leaza and Jon getting married
5. Kyle and Jana getting married
6. Chris spraining his ankle and missing warrior dash which gave us a much coveted weekend at home
7. Natalie and Jonathan getting married
8.  Our two year wedding anniversary spent staying at the Westin Galleria, shopping, and eating.
9.  Chris having 200 bachelor parties to attend
10. Evan and Chris attending a Larry Titus men's retreat and getting their lives changed - while Julie and I hung out at the barn and bonded
11. Angela and Tommy getting married
12. Sheridan, Wes, Jana, & Kyle spending 4 days with us at the Barn for the 4 of July
13. Going to Dallas and staying at the Westin at the airport and hanging with Larry & Devi Titus
14. Michael Fermier and Danielle coming to stay the weekend
15.  Going to Boca Raton Florida with Chris's parents for a week --- spent getting massages, laying out, and eating
16. Lauren and Matt Sloan getting married
17.  LSM Men's Retreat --- Julie and I also hung out at the barn and did fun things around Houston
18. Daniel and Jenny getting married
19. Making an offer on a house in Houston
20.  Going on a cruise with 3 of our favorite couple friends
21. Going to Lubbock to see our friend Lauren and Jason's new baby
22. Coming back from Lubbock to find out that we will close TWO WEEKS EARLY on the House we had made the offer on
23. Packing and moving into a new HOUSE that we bought and love
24. Flying to Detroit where Chris got ordained and we did a little exploring
25. Chris's sister coming to stay with us at the new house
26. Realizing that we no longer live at the Barn and can see people during the week and stay up to 10:30 if we want to
27.  The plumbing system in our house backing up and Chris and Wes fixing it all by themselves!
28. Chris and Wes painting the house while Sheridan and I attended Alyssa and Austin's wedding!

I just felt like y'all needed to know what is going on in our lives so you can catch back up with me as I fill all of you in with my thoughts on all these crazy events in our lives!   We feel like in the last two months God has pushed the GO button in our lives.  After spending a quiet year in the barn this is a wonderful change.   A change that is happening very quickly.  

Events still on the calendar:
1. Jess and Mikala possibly starting a new business
2. Decorating my new house :)
3. Attending the Goodwins Halloween Party
4. Seeing Allie Maultsby and Charles get married in Dallas (and getting to see Shaina)
5. Celebrating Luke, Mikala, and Heritage getting their Aggie Rings
6. Thanksgiving
7. My parents' Christmas party
8. Sausage Fest
9. My birthday
10. Geoff and Erin get married
11. Laura and Tom get married
12. Christmas
13. Emily Staff and Jaime get married
14. New Years

WHEW :)  Now you are all caught and I can start blogging again and we can pick up where we left off! Which was the Fall TV schedule --- which in fact we have had absolutely NO TIME to maintain :)

Fall TV

It was not until I got married that I became a regular TV watcher.   During high school and college my schedule was constantly changing and I just simply did not watch a whole lot of TV.   In fact I really had no idea how other people watched so much TV.   Marriage and working does this whole number on the spontaneity of life which in return allows for regular TV watching.

There is also this weird honeymoon phase of marriage after your actual honeymoon where it is quite possibly the most romantic thing to sit on the couch together and watch TV and grow fat.    You just want to sit there with your honey and snuggle right in front of the Tube.   Everything else lessens in comparison to the complete joy it is to watch TV with your new spouse knowing that neither of you have to drive home after your show ends.    I think it is comparable to the first semester of college when you realize that your mom will not be waiting up for you in your dorm room, and the only things keeping you from not coming home at 4:00 in the morning is some sense of responsibility that she constantly tried to instill in you for 18 years.

All of this being said I am still somewhat ashamed of our TV schedule.  I used to make fun of people who categorized TV like this, but hey people change and now I am one of them!  This is more of wish list that really only Hulu and DVR can truly fulfill.   Here is what we in the Hill House like to watch on TV:

Please add in copious amounts of foodnetwork and the occasional 30 Rock!

Great kitchens :)

I love to cook.   This is not a secret.   Whenever I have any type of gathering in my kitchen I cook up a storm and force them to eat whether they want to or not.   This previous weekend we had 5 couples stay with us because of Daniel Weizel's wedding.   As soon as we walked into the door post wedding I adorned an apron and made two prosciutto pizzas.   Everyone thought I was working too hard but really I just could not give up the opportunity of having so many people gathered around in my house not eating!  So thank you everyone who I forced pizza upon at 12:15 in the morning!

I love to cook and I am SHORT - like 5'2 short.   When I found this kitchen below on one of my favorite blogs I want that kitchen I knew I just had to show y'all.  Below is a kitchen equipped with ladders.  It is a beautiful thing!  One day I would LOVE to have this kitchen.  Until then I will have to continue to ask my tall 6'4 husband to get things down for me that I cannot reach!

Me

Who I, Jessica Hill, want to be.

Me.   I want to be the me God designed me to be.   Unfortunately the only thing in the way is me.

I want to be a hot and sexy wife who loves, supports, and trusts her husband.  I want to be a fun and loving Mommy who is always there for her kids.   I want to be an inspiring writer whose only desire is to please Jesus.   I want to be an adventurous cook who feeds lots of family and friends.   I want to be healthy and fit.   I want to live the life God designed me to live.

God put me here on this earth so that I could know Him, bring Him glory, and serve His purposes.

El Yum: What to Eat?

Ever have trouble deciding what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?  Ever find your self going to the grocery store with out a plan, and then buying lots of food and then coming home and still not have anything to make for dinner?  Do you ever feel frustrated and wonder why in the world we have to eat anyways?

I have to admit that when I first got married I was totally overwhelmed with the whole cooking all the time and feeding a large man thing.   Sometimes today I get tired of cooking the same old thing and run out of inspiration to be creative, quick, and clean in the kitchen.   But living in the Barn out in Magnolia will cure you of this dreadful "What to Eat" disease pretty quick because if you have no dinner to make then well you may have to drive 45 minutes round trip to the nearest chick-fil-a.    My friends when you are so hungry that you are angry --- known as "hangry" --- then waiting 45 minutes to eat is a long time.  Especially if you have already wasted 1.5 hrs trying to come up with dinnerr at home!

When I first got married I worked a couple months at our "local" Anthropologie where I discovered this "What to Eat" meal planning pad for about $8.    This pad helped me to get inspired to plan my meals and write my grocery list down.   Mostly because it was from Anthro and it was cute!   It Turned out to a pretty good plan because it has been keeping me sane for about a year and half now.    I live by it!

On Sundays after church I sit down at our big kitchen table and take out my pad.    I first think of what our scheduled will be for the week and if I know we will eat out one day I go ahead and write that down.   I consult with the Hubby Bubby to see if he needs me to make him lunch all five days that week or just a few.   I then ask him if there is anything he wants me to make him for dinner that week, and usually he just tells me he loves everything I cook and he is positive I can come up with something.... ha!  After that I try and think of anything that I want for dinner off the top of my head and write that down.    Then I start recipe searching -  blogs, cookbooks, or inspiration from the foodnetwork or something yummy I ate at a restaurant the previous week.

I have found that some of the best recipes are the ones that you try and re-create from one of your favorite restaurant meals.

Once you have got all your meals down then it is time to check your fridge and pantry to see what you got before you make your grocery list.    I then flip over this piece of paper and make my list on the back of it.    I list what store I am going to and what I need from there along with any other "wifely" errands I might need to make that week.    That way everything I need to do is on that sheet of paper.

What I find MOST helpful with my little system is that by the time Wednesday has rolled around and I am exhausted or have had an extremely long hard day dinner has already been decided for me.    This greatly helps the "Oh I will just pick up take out on the way home" disease because everything you need to make for dinenr is already at home and in your fridge.    

Now for some recipes from around the Web that I love:

1. Mexican Hummus 

2. Chicken Pastina 

3. Black Bean Quinoa 

4. Southwest Chili with Corn (I use ground Turkey)

5. Chicken Pot Pie

6. BBQ Roasted Salmon

7. Anything from this blog  - They taught me to put pesto on Sandwiches ( can you say EL Yum? )

8. Cuban Braised Beef 

These are just a few to get your mind rolling.   Later on I will post everything I can think of to do with chicken!