Seasons

Have you ever been blown away by God's faithfulness? Goodness? Mercy? Love?

I'm in a season right now where I'm learning these things more than I ever have. And it's beautiful.

He is showing me things about myself that I have never fully believed, He is answering prayers in magnificent ways, He is touching my heart every day.

Sometimes, our experiences in life are high and exciting and full of sparkles (I don't know, doesn't it seem like life just sparkles sometimes?!). Other times, we are in the Valley. (my pastor talks about it here). Where God seems distant and life is hard.

Where are you today? Can we be praying for you for something? Let's talk about it in the comments below.

Writing

A friend commented to me recently that I should be writing. I've received a few of those comments from others over the last few months. Last night I watched Music & Lyrics and was reminded how cute Drew Barrymore is carrying around her notepad and clicky pen.

There is a big part of me that says "who would want to read your words?" and another part that is cautious about thinking too much of me. But I'm going to write more. On paper first. Maybe some things will end up here. That's all I have to say about that.

Now, I'm headed off to work on No. 17 - Oliver Twist.

Gluten-Free Breakfast

My mom is on a gluten free diet and suspects more of us 'kids' should be on it too. That said, I've been trying to lessen my gluten intake (which I'm sure doesn't really help, but it's helping my brain get used to the idea before I have to rid it from my diet). I also have only been working on this for like 3 days, so very little progress has been made!

This morning I was hungry for breakfast and it was cloudy and cold outside.

-side note- I'm so glad it's cold right now, because highs in the upper 70s in January was getting a little ridiculous. :)

Today is my day off, so I figure why not make something warm and yummy -and gluten-free- for breakfast. I really wanted something that is not gluten-free nor dairy-free: biscuits and gravy. Mmm. But I ceded and chose to make gluten free oat bran applesauce muffins. (My mom doesn't actually do well with oats, but I still tried them)

That's when I realized we didn't have applesauce. And so I "made" some by putting an apple and some warm water, sugar, and cinnamon into a food processor. :)

Let me just fast forward to taking the muffins out of the oven and trying a piece.....

The good news is, I now know how to make dirt muffins!!! The dirt muffins have been excommunicated to the compost bin.

One of these days, I am going to experiment with something and it will turn out.

Christmas Gifts

I know Christmas is way over, and this is a long time coming, but here is what I worked on for Christmas Gifts this year.

I had bookmarked this bread recipe from Summer Harms' blog and tried it a week before Christmas, you know, to make sure it turned out! And it did! It was really good. I've made it again since the Christmas craziness and took more time with it and loved it even more!

I also used this Cinnamon Honey Butter recipe. It is super yummy - like lick the spoon even though it's butter yummy. :)

ingredients are all ready

Oh my, yum

Once the loaves were made and the butter was jarred, I put everything in this metal pot from IKEA along with a dishtowel, and topped it all off with one of my felt trees. (You can read about the trees here)

Unfortunately, I assembled everything on the same day I baked all the bread and delivered the gifts, which meant I was running late and never got a picture of a finished gift. Oh well. If you wanted the recipe for anything, now you have it!

I Need This Today

There is so much more in my mind and heart than can be put into words. It feels like every so often, a time comes when one's faith is truly integral to survival. That feels dramatic, but right now, it's true. I have to turn to Jesus and cling to Him. To know the truth and choose to believe the truth. To put my entire heart and life and strength into His hands. To be overcome by His grace, glory, love, peace. To know that when I ask, He answers. And to trust that He is bigger than I am, that He not only has my life's perfect plan in motion, but the plans of everyone else as well. I can trust Him. I can rely on Him. I can run to Him and be comforted. And most unfathomable of all, I can be loved beyond measure by the God who created the universe, who stands above time and seasons and planets, who is all-powerful, who is all-knowing, who is in all places, who is right here with me, who traded the glory of heaven and constant worship of angels for a helpless infant body only to grow and  be beaten, mocked, and killed, stripped of dignity and respect, all so that I would not suffer the same fate. So that my crimes against God may be erased from my past, present, and future and that I may be seen as righteous, to have right standing with the Holy, perfect God Almighty. That is the Jesus that is Lord of my life. That is the Jesus that I cling to with all that I am. That is the Jesus that I want to share with the world. That is the Jesus that I choose again today, and every day.

No. 17 - Oliver Twist

I am making very slow progress on this book. I'm only about a third of the way through it and it seems like the Disney movie is already almost over by this point. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Oliver & Company left out some things.

Dickens is a really good writer and I'm enjoying the book, it just takes a lot of effort. My brain is getting back into gear, though, so I'm hoping to make some serious progress on it soon.

In other news, I'm going to my favorite antique store with my mom and sister. Love antique stores. :)

Purge, continued

I think it is safe to say that everything is cleaned out and cleaned up and I am settled into my new (old) room nicely. I still need to load up and drop off and then I will officially be done with The Purge of 2011.

 My desk, before. It became a landing place for my tiny creatures, which doesn't sound creepy at all.

Speaking of creepy, is it weird that I turned all their faces to watch the flame? It would be weirder if I didn't turn them, right?

 Desk, after.

I also went through all my magazines. What I decided to do was keep 2010 Better Homes & Gardens and Martha Stewart Living because I started my subscriptions in October. (why did it take me so long to just subscribe to a magazine I was buying off the rack every month?!) And also the MS Food ones. Then I picked out a few favorite issues of BHG. I stopped buying Real Simple because it didn't feel very simple to me. I couldn't afford anything in magazine and I wasn't finding tons of "I could do that for way less" inspiration like I do in the other ones. So I went through all the RS and ripped out a few recipes, images, articles I wanted to keep. Also in the keep pile: various Holiday specials, a few Country Living issues, all my Collide issues (church media).

The taller stack is the recycle pile. The short one is the keep!

Do you have an overflowing magazine collection? Or do you have a system to keep it in check? I'd love to hear about it!