As promised, I am doing a post about Baby Hughes. I am due Late August/Early September with a baby girl. Her name is Braelynn Peyton Hughes. We are sooooo incredibly excited and blessed to be growing as a family.

As excited as we are, this pregnancy has been extremely rough. I have non-stop nausea. This nausea has caused me to have to try 3 different nausea medications, all which only work some of the time. I have also been to the ER four times and twice due specifically to nausea. I have had multiple IV’s done. I’m 6 months in (its so crazy how fast this has gone) and still puking almost daily.

I have also experienced some side-effects from my epilepsy. I have had 2 seizures during my pregnancy (the other 2 ER trips). Recently, I have also begun to have frequent dizziness and double vision. The further into the pregnancy I go, the more difficulties I have. I am working closely with doctors who are monitoring and adjusting my medication frequently. I get blood drawn every week to test my levels.

My pregnancy is impacting my job and the people in my life significantly. The drive is about 30 minutes one way and I no longer have a license. This means I have to find someone dedicated to giving up an hour of their time to drive me to work 10 times a week. Although everyone has been extremely helpful and sweet, I know that I have become a burden. Even if the drive was not an issue, I spend a good amount of my day worrying about my needs now. I am not as available to do all the things I have in the past. I have to take breaks to throw up, I have a hard time getting up off the floor, I am more tired than usual, and I’m afraid of having a seizure while the kids are in my care.

All of these unexpected problems have led me to a very difficult decision. My original plan was to work through August 2021 and leave a couple weeks before my due date. Due to all of the physical problems I am having, I am leaving at the end of May instead. This was such a hard choice to make but after weighing the pros and cons of staying, the cons way outweigh the pros.

I am trying to find something I can do online and Joey is looking at potential promotion opportunities through Amazon. Despite the challenges that come from me quitting so early, this is ultimately what’s best for everyone. It’s hard to leave this chapter but it’s also necessary.

Despite these challenges, we are beyond excited for Braelynn to join our lives. Thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging and helpful during this season. We appreciate your love and prayers so much. 💖 We hope your day goes well.

When you read this title, you probably think it means something very different than it actually does. In this post, I want to share the new way of studying my Bible that I have found. This helps me to focus more on God and His word than on the aesthetic of my Bible.

First, I want to preface that this is the way that I study the Bible. This might work for someone else and it might not. The most important thing is to remember that your time with God and in His word is YOURS. It does not belong to anyone else and does not need to impress anyone else. It needs to work for you! If this doesn’t work for you that is totally okay. Everyone is wired different and that is beautiful.

Some of you probably have heard of Bible Journaling. If you have not, it is when people draw or color in their Bibles as a way of connecting with God. Obviously there is more to it, but I am not going to explain further as this method did not work for me. Bible Journaling is often done by artists with lots of artistic abilities and especially everything shared on the internet. Everything is beautiful and personal to the person sharing. Back in 2017, I bought a journaling bible for this exact reason.

As many of you can guess, I am not an artist or even kinda close. I also was enrolled at Moody Bible Institute in Spokane. It seemed that everyone there knew significantly more about the Bible than I did. So in addition to trying to draw in the Bible, I started a color-coding system.

In theory, this would have been a genius idea but I took it too far. I started to track things that were for brain knowledge instead of a deeper relationship with God. I started to try to track every single person, whether they were male or female, every mention of God’s name, every place named, etc. I was so distracted I didn’t even follow the storyline or see what God was doing. I made it about 3 chapters in Genesis and then gave up. I then realized that I couldn’t read the words in the Bible from all of the dark highlighting over one another. After that, I went on a mission trip and marked my Bible with verses to show God’s grace and the story of salvation. This was done in a very specific way therefore it caused reading anything else difficult.

After I left Moody, I took an unintentional break from Bible study. I was so burnt out from trying to keep up with the scholars at Moody. I felt dumb and tired. Around Easter, I found a large stack of Bible Studies I bought on sale when Lifeway was closing (RIP 😢). I decided to try to do Bible Study in a way that I understood.

Naturally, I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I don’t know what I was looking for since beautiful Pinterest worthy Bible Journaling had been my issue in the first place, but I know I found gold. I found the concept of “wrecking the Bible.” This sounds bad initially but the shortened version is to Bible Journal in a way that makes sense to you, even if it isn’t the most beautiful thing ever.

The big takeaway I have so far is that as long as you are pursuing God, your notes are beautiful. They don’t need to be artistic (although there is nothing wrong with that), they need to be authentic. The notes don’t have to be college level stuff (again nothing wrong with that), they need to be something that means something to you and something God is teaching you.

So what does it look like to wreck your Bible? Whatever God shows you, artistic or not! For me, I started in a Hosea guided Bible study. As I go through the Bible study, I mark things that I think are important and things I learn from. I am slowly creating a color-coding system based on what I see that I need instead of just assigning colors before starting. This has helped me to think through if a color is something that will be able to be used through the whole Bible or if this note is just for the book. If it is just for a specific book, I just use a reference color and write a note instead of assigning a color to one specific thing. By doing this, I am able to connect the whole Bible together.

What has this done for my study time and time with God? I have started to pick up my Bible as a habit not just a hobby. I also have been able to read other books without needing a specific guided Bible study to lay everything out for me. I do use guided Bible studies, but I am no longer limited to only books I have a specific study for.

Lastly, I have been able to go back to my sermon notes from church in a meaningful way and put them in my Bible. This makes a way for me to remember important bits of truth and specific quotes when I reread the sections in the future. My hope and goal is to reach a point where I have read the entire Bible and can begin to connect with it. How does the Bible connect to my life? How do all the books connect to each other? What is God trying to teach me?

Ultimately, this way of Bible study is perfect for ME. This isn’t perfect for everyone so don’t feel discouraged if this doesn’t work for you. There were/are things that don’t work for me. My prayer is that this post can reach someone’s heart and helps them to connect/deepen their relationship with God.

That’s all I have to say right now. If you guys are interested, I can do a longer series of blogs about my journey. I can talk about small ways I used to be okay with not having a “beautiful” Bible. I can also make a post about the tips, tricks, and color-coding system I use. I can talk about how I came up/am coming up with my system. Almost anything you want to see, I can try to share. I pray God blesses your day. 💖

I can’t believe it’s been over almost a year since my last update! I’m so sorry! As you can imagine lots of things have happened in the last year. I will be doing a brief overview in this post and going into more details for some points in other posts coming soon (my goal is to hopefully have one released by Sunday and the other in early to mid May, fingers crossed).

First, I wanna start with school updates. Joey graduates in about 2 weeks from Moody Bible Institute! This has been a long time coming and we are both so excited! Eventually, he hopes to return to school for a masters but for now he is taking a break. I have also returned to school. After this quarter, I will have 3 classes for my AA. After my AA, I plan to go into an American Sign Language Interpreter Certification Program. Between the two, I will be able to become a certified interpreter and interpret in many settings.

Secondly, jobs updates. Joey is still working at Amazon and loves it. He hopes to advance in his position soon and has many goals in this job. As for me, I will be leaving my job as a nanny in August 2021. Although I will miss the kids so much, it will be good for everyone involved. I am beginning to look at what it would take to open a successful crafting business legally. I am in the early stages of this and not 100% decided yet.

Third, I have begun to “wreck my bible.” This is a technique that I have learned about recently and has helped me to be able to connect with God in a meaningful way. I will be doing a post entirely dedicated to this as I believe it is an amazing way to understand the bible, making the bible less intimidating to read with or without a specific bible study, connect with God, learn lots of new things, and let go of any thoughts about the Bible being pretty (I really struggle with this).

Fourth is our loans. Since the last time I posted, we have paid another loan off and are fairly close to having a third paid off. We have been extremely lucky in this season as we have both been able to work in some capacity for the entire pandemic. We have also been fortunate to have no minimum loan payments due to my return to school which has allowed us to make larger payments to one loan at a time, therefore decreasing the balance and following the debt snowball.

Lastly, but definitely not least (this is the most exciting part), the Hughes family is growing!!! Baby Hughes is expected to arrive in late August or early September. I will be doing a much longer post on this in May after we find out the gender. For now the highlights are that baby is doing well although she/he is kicking Momma’s butt. The nausea was fairly bad but is getting better and I had a mild seizure which resulted in me loosing my license again 😕 We are now monitoring my levels heavily and things are looking good.

That’s it for now! 💖 Have a great day and hope to post again very soon.

Hello,

Soooo sorry about how long it has been since we have posted. I didn’t want to post until everything was actually in motion. We have a handful of new things going on and we also went on vacation.

First off, on June 23rd we made a big kid purchase! We bought a new car! Her name is Madelynn and she is a 2011 Honda CRV. She is the best car I have ever had. It is amazing to have a reliable car that we know we can count on. She even has some extra features such as air conditioning, a usb port for charging my phone, and a great truck with lots of space!

Secondly, Joey got a new job at Amazon! His new hours allow us to actually hang out every night and weekend! It has amazing benefits and he loves it! This job opens up time in our schedules to eat dinner together, hanging with friends, or just having a date night. I am so excited for this new opportunity in our lives.

Our trip was amazing! We went to a Bavarian-styled village in Washington called Leavenworth. It was so beautiful and relaxing! The buildings are all so unique and beautiful. Even McDonalds, Subway, and Starbucks were decorated to match the town decor. The decor filled the town! I have never seen anything like it! It is amazing the dedication the town has to the decor and style. This vacation was exactly what we needed.

Lastly is information about school. Joey will be graduating in Spring of 2021 from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in Ministry Leadership. I will be returning to school in Fall 2020. I will be attending Spokane Falls Community College to pursue Sign Language Interpretation.

Sorry again for taking so long to blog again. I am trying to find a good balance where it is not overdone to the point of not having anything new to say while still being relevant enough to keep everyone updated. Thanks for being so patient and have an amazing day!

Hello again! 

This last week has brought some EXTREMELY exciting news! WE PAID OFF OUR FIRST LOAN!!! All of our hard work is beginning to pay off (literally). We could not have done this without the guidance provided in the book Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover. This book has so many insights into how to budget, the debt snowball, and overall wise money decisions. Obviously the advice only works through application but nevertheless the information provided in this book has been such a HUGE part in our financial decisions. 

I am also very excited to be so close to having my license again. As many of you know, I had a seizure on December 23, 2019. When we talked with my neurologist, we adjusted my medication to a higher dose and agreed that I should not drive for six months. In just over a month, that time limit will be complete. I cannot wait to have the freedom to drive myself where I need to go! These last few months have been really hard as I have to rely on everyone else to be able to get where I need to. I have been in this position before, especially in high school at the peak of my seizure activity, but not driving has never been this difficult before. I have never had the desperate need for a car before but due to the location of my work, a car is necessary to get to. I have been blessed by the generosity of my family and friends but I can’t wait to be able to get there by myself. 

Speaking of jobs, the Salvation Army has not yet opened. I am patiently waiting for the call saying that we are able to work again. I love that job so much. Working at the Salvation Army has been such a blessing and I cannot wait to return. My nanny job is still going strong. I have now pretty much taken over the homeschooling of the kids now. This has proven to be extremely difficult and I feel for all of the parents who are doing it alone. I cannot imagine trying to do this while working a traditional job. Joey’s job hasn’t really changed since my last post. His hours shifted but not really anything new there. 

Overall, this week has been amazing! I am so happy with the loan payment and the idea of reuniting with my car. We have been so incredibly blessed during this strange time in our lives. We hope that things are going well for you as well. We know that a lot of people have really been struggling during this weird time and are very grateful for all the things we have accomplished. We would not be where we are without the blessings of God or the support of our family and friends. Thank you for loving us so well, it means a lot. Have a great day!

May 10th, 2020

Hello! I hope your quarantine is going well! We wish the best for all of you during this weird time. 

Since my last post, things have gotten closer to normal. Joey has been rehired at his job! When he was laid off, we were uncertain if he would get his job back. The casino laid off most of their employees and would have to rehire some upon opening. Luckily, Joey was rehired. He is not working his normal shift but is working his normal days! It is exciting to have him return to work! We have enjoyed the time we had during this time, but it is great to have Joey back at work. 

Joey will also be finishing his classes tomorrow starting his summer vacation!! As summer approaches, it will be nice for him to not worry about school work. Although, Joey is never done studying! I am positive that he will spend the summer reading books for fun, listening to podcasts, and studying things to help him in youth ministry.

As for me, nothing has changed at this point. I have not returned to the Salvation Army and am still working as a nanny. I have started to listen to The Bible Project Podcast hosted by Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. It has been interesting to listen to. I watched a couple of their youtube videos a while back but this podcast is much more in depth. It has been super insightful and even helped me to be motivated to pursue reading through the Bible all the way. I have really struggled to finish the whole Bible as I hit lengthy laws/genealogies. I have also always had a hard time putting it all together. About a year ago, I did a bible study called Seamless which really helped me to see how it all connects. I have started a few bible studies since then but for some reason only get halfway through. I always tend to get distracted, bored, tired, or want to do something that aligns more with something I am doing. I am gonna start the Bible Project Reading Plan on May 11th, 2020 and focus solely on that. 

On another note, we have also been able to make a few more extra payments to my loan!! This puts us at $771.47 on the lowest loan!! God has really blessed us through this crazy time! As we look forward to paying off the first of many loans, we get so excited! Debt-free living is a goal we will continue to strive for! With some hard work and dedication we plan to pay these off very soon! 

Would you guys like a blog explaining what we have done to eliminate debt and budget? What about a blog in response to reading the bible through/listening to the Bible Project Podcast? Do you want a different type of content? Let me know in the comments! Bye for now! Stay safe, wash your hands, and have a good day!

Welcome to our new blogging website! We decided to make this website for our friends and family to keep up with our life. I have added all of our previous updates from Facebook.

Today Joey and I made an extra payment to one of our loans. This loan is now officially under $1000!!!!!!! This is a moment we have been working towards since day one of our marriage!! Within the month we will be able to pay off this loan entirely!!! This brings so much joy to me as we watch our hard work pay off!

I also forgot to mention in the last update, Joey and I booked a mini-vacation in July! We will be headed off to Leavenworth for a couple of days assuming that our airbnb doesn’t cancel.

This update was much shorter but it was just a small victory I wanted to share. One of my newer goals is to blog or update more often. I would also like to write more that just updating everyone on our life. In the future what kind of blogs or topics would you like to see?

Hello! 

I decided that it was time to do another Hughes update! As you all know, we are in a crazy season. This update is extremely long so I am sorry for that. We thank all of you who have been praying for us. We love you! Now here is how we are doing during Covid-19. 

Covid-19 has caused a lot of things to change within the world. Lots of social interactions have been cancelled. In our life, this means that unfortunately we are unable to attend church physically. Our church has been doing as much as they can to make our church stay connected. This includes an online service every week, online prayer groups, online q&a’s with our pastors, and encouraging updates from our elders. Joey and I miss attending church in the traditional way, but I am glad we are still able to connect. My trip back home was also cancelled. I had to miss my nephew’s first birthday party. Luckily, thanks to zoom I was able to attend virtually! In case you were wondering, IT WAS SO CUTE!!!! 

As you know, schools are also closed until at least next school year. I do not personally have children but I do nanny for a family of 5. I always have the 2 year-old but now I also have the 7 year-old and the 12 year-old. Things are definitely crazy now as I try to help homeschool them. The kids are struggling teaching themselves and I haven’t done the material in years. This means that not only am I trying to make sure that they attend their zoom meetings each week but I am also having to relearn a lot of information. We have experienced many bumps in the road as I continue assisting with homeschooling, being the referee between the kids, and helping the kids as they face not being able to see their friends. I love this family and am very happy to be helping during this time (even if sometimes I want to pull my hair out). This job has been and continues to be a very good learning experience for the time in our future (not now) where we have kids of our own and this time only furthers that learning. 

Due to Covid-19, Joey’s job had closed down. But God was gracious to us! Initially, Joey’s job paid every employee for their time off! Joey was off of work for several weeks with full pay and full benefits. It was amazing! Joey was able to work on homework and we were able to have some unexpected time together. Prior Covid-19, we had very limited time to be together. As the quarantine began to get more severe, my department at The Salvation Army closed down. I was offered a high-risk job but with my personal contact at my nanny job, I did not want to put the kids at risk. Joey was eventually laid off. This was devastating. Joey loved the work he did and the income was really important now more than ever. 

During all of this, we were informed that our car needed some significant work done. This cost us over $1400. When this happened, I got so anxious. Joey no longer had a job and I no longer had my Salvation Army income. But God provided still. 

When it was announced that we would be getting a stimulus check, we were so relieved. When we got the stimulus check, we were able to pay many bills months in advance and replenish the emergency fund we had used on the car. The stimulus check eased my mind as for a couple of months we could live on just my part-time income. We ended up being even more blessed as the weeks went on. 

The Salvation Army decided to furlough their employees in my department. I assumed nothing would change but they decided to give every employee a paycheck for some unworked hours. This paycheck was more than I had ever made working as this job was very part-time for me. We were able to continue to pay bills in advance and even put some into loans. Joey ended up getting a job for doordash and is now supplementing his income with it. At this time, we had a $1000 emergency fund and many bills paid in advance.

We saw God working through our finances more than ever before. We were contacted by my federal loans and told that 4 of my loans (I have 4 private loans as well in which nothing has changed) had been put into forbearance without penalty or interest. We have been making the monthly payments and been blessed enough to put extra money into the loans for a while now.  If things continue to go the way that they are we will have our first loan paid off within 2 months! At the beginning of 2020, we had a total of $50909.68. Now, we have a total of $48549.34! God has been so good and continues to be amazing! 

Overall, we are doing very well and realize how blessed we are! God is good all the time! We love all of you and will continue to be doing updates. Be safe ❤

As we head into 2020, I wanted to do a life update. I looked through my feed to see when the last update was…. March of 2019…. I have a lot to catch up on haha

Since our last update both Joey and I have had a job change. As of March, Joey had the sad news that Lifeway was closing. He had to search for a new job and was blessed with a full-time position at Northern Quest Casino as a housekeeper. I have also changed jobs. I was working at a daycare during our last update. That job was EXTREMELY high stress. I decided to leave in April. I became a nanny for an amazing family in May. This was a slight pay cut but was so worth it. I love this family and they have become a large part of my life. In the switch of jobs I lost about half of my hours. Due to the schedule conflicts between Joey and I, I was becoming bored. I decided to get a second job as a Foster Care Visitation Monitor in September. I started training in October and love this new position. It is extremely fulfilling work. Plus I get extra income to pour into our loans.

As I mentioned in my March post, becoming debt-free is our main goal. Joey and I have spent a good majority of 2019 following the Dave Ramsey debt snowball. Sadly, my data keeping skills are weak. I am unsure of exactly how much debt we began 2019 with, but I do have the numbers from our wedding date on.

0n August of 2018, we had a total of $52.944.60 of debt. This does not include Joey’s student debt as we have only been focusing on my debt. Since August of 2018, we have paid $2070.47 off. This is a total of 3.90% of our debt paid off. As we head into 2020, we will have the opportunity to utilize my ENTIRE Salvation Army paychecks to pay as extra payments onto my loans.

As many of you know, I have been Mermaiding since January of 2019. This has been such a cool hobby for me. I even had the opportunity to work for an aquarium as a professional mermaid. This job was a huge blessing and I enjoyed it so much. As I head into 2020, I have returned to mermaiding as a hobby. I just was not enjoying it the same way I used to. I felt as it was something I HAD to do. My last show was Friday.

I also got a new nephew in 2019! Oliver was born on April 5, 2019. He is so precious! I got to meet him at Thanksgiving and he was just here this week. My sister got married December 1st, 2019.

Some of the things we have enjoyed to do in 2019 include:

-Debt Payoff

-Law and Order

-Watch Marvel movies

-Hang out with friends

-Mermaiding (Me)

-Working in new jobs that are both profitable and also fulfilling

-Enjoying life ❤ Overall 2019 was a blast! We had so much fun as well as continue working toward our goals. Thank you to all who have been there for us. 

3/24/2019

Hello friends and family,

As Joseph Hughes and I head into our 9th month of marriage, I wanted to update the public world! In my last post Joey and I had made some goals. We have thought through them a little more and decided some goals that were not mentioned.

Goals for our next 5 years updated!!

– We still value debt payoff as one of our top goals. In January I did the math wrong on our current debt. We actually had $52,994.60 in debt. Since January we have paid off $2,247.32!!!! Due to interest we now owe $50,985.70. That is 4.407% of our debt paid off!!!! We are very excited to persue the elimination of debt in our lives.

-We have paid for a ticket back to Colorado for my sister’s wedding and are saving money for spending in Colorado.

-We have created an emergency fund of $500 and plan to add to it monthly.

-We have been looking at multiple Youth Ministry Positions in many areas.

-We are thinking about foster care much more seriously. We may start the process soon as it takes quite a while to be able to actually foster. We also would like to get rid of a large portion of debt if not all of it gone before fostering just to be in a better financial state to hold a child.

-Traveling is still on our mind. As our 1st anniversary comes up we are looking for a weekend getaway that will be on the cheaper side and not require me to take time off of work (I have to take time off for our trip to Colorado and time off at my job is hard)

-We want to unpack and organize all of our stuff (we highly appreciate all that our friends and family have already helped!!)

-Joey is looking for a new job as he is receiving very low hours. It was also announced that Lifeway will be closing in June 2019. We are both very sad about this store closing not only do to the job portion (Joey was looking for better hours anyway) but also because this store has meant a lot to us. It is a solid store to find good books for life as a Christian (not saying its the only one) and also to get encouraged from both staff and products. Joey had an interview with one job already and has another one this week so I have high hopes.

Some of our hobbies include:

– Law and Order Svu (Im obsessed)

-Swimming as a mermaid (just me)

-Doing puzzles

-Bible studies with our friends

-Watching movies on the Lizt (a movie list of movies I have not seen. We just finished Lord of the Rings)

-Budgeting. I like this activity now as I finally understand it and have a grasp of our monthly needs (for example gas is $90). I also like to see how much we can realistically put towards loans. One of my favorite things to do is to budget based on various amount of hours, assuming we have the same living costs, how long it will take to pay off debt. The longest I have figured is March 2024 and the earliest I have figured is January 2022. I know this is ambitious and probably not realistic, its at least helping with motivation for loan repayment.

Overall, we are doing well. As you can probably tell by this post, we are very financially minded right now. We don’t want to waste anymore resources or time on trying to payoff debt than necessary. Have a good one and I’ll do another update soon.