Fall in Love

How do you celebrate the beginning of autumn? We hung our fall garden flag and updated our welcome mat. I’m also looking forward to more pumpkin everything.

Today we kept our slider open with the fans blasting and it was comfortable in the house! Definite change in climate. Usually it’s unbearably hot here. The evenings are breezy and slightly on the cool side. Perfect walking weather.

Time to let go. Let all the bad fall away and leave the good. Happy Fall my friends!

Berry Choco Muffins

Today was a good day. My girlfriend and I went to look at a house built in 1900! It was a mess, but a beautiful one. So much potential and overall MAGICAL. It’s in the uptown area of our historic city. Plus my friend is a creative genius so it would be transformed and given all the love it needs.

Afterward, we went to a little market and had lemonade and quiche. She has 2 kiddos and is well versed in needing non-mommy time. I accidentally invited my hubs and son to join us at the market and she reminded me that it was “Girl Time”. I was grateful that she helped me protect that time. I’m not so good at that.

Let’s keep the good going…

Stuff

• 1½ cups flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup coconut sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup almond milk
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped strawberries
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• Sparkling Sugar

Steps

• Preheat oven to 375º F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
• In a large bowl, combine flour (1.5 c), white sugar (1/2 c), coconut sugar (1/4 c), baking powder (2 tsp), cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and salt (1/2 tsp).
• In a separate bowl, add almond milk (1/2 c), vegetable oil (1/3 c), vanilla (1/2 tsp) and 1 egg. Pour into flour mixture.
• Add in strawberries (1 c) & chocolate chips (3/4 c) and mix until just combined.
• Fill each muffin cup ¾ full. Sprinkle sparkling sugar (as much as you like!) on top of muffins.
• Bake for 22 minutes, or until done.

Inspired by: https://sugarspiceandfamilylife.com/2017/03/strawberry-muffins-recipe.html/amp

BIRTH Day

Today was a celebration of many birthdays:

• My Nana. She would have been 93 today! I miss her so much.
• My Godson. He’s 7 years old!
• My Aunt. She’s struggling health wise and I miss her.
• Max – he was born today via C-section to a mom who’s lost 2 sons. Monday miracle!

Hope you enjoyed your day and remember that there is always someone to celebrate.

 

Fruitful Friday

Today consisted of work, haircut for D, takeout, coffee, surfing, leftovers, time with neighbors and ice cream! At the end of the day, all was great. God is definitely at work in this life that’s unfolding before me.

With all the great stuff, I still struggle with the what if thoughts. However their power is weaker. I feel my triggers, but God is transforming the worry into reliance on Him.

I think as women, we beat ourselves up for feeling a certain way when things are going well. We like to justify our anxieties, but the truth is, sometimes it just creeps up on you. The guilt of that can spawn shame and more worry about “the why”. But what if we’re not meant to know the why and just need to give it over to God. What if we are feeling this way because it’s an exercise of trust.

I hope you can find and feel His grace. Here’s to a fruitful Friday and weekend!

Working Wednesday

Today was a busy day. Work was consistent, but I still found myself wandering down What If Road. Ever been there? It’s like you’re grateful, but wonder what if this or that happened. What if I never get paid for this work? What if I’m just not good enough? What if that tragic thing that happened to them happens to me? What if…

It’s interesting being in a place where you are so reliant on God that you can’t do anything else but pray and trust. I was in my small/bible study group tonight and the perfect analogy for this was brought up. My friend said, it’s like you’re a kid, holding your parent’s hand, waiting to cross the street. That child trusts that parent to take them across. There’s not a doubt in their mind that they will get across that street with their parent’s help. Pure trust.

God is asking me/us to hold His hand and trust that He will get us to the other side. The other side of sickness, fear, doubt, unemployment, anxiety, depression…{insert your mountain here}.

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:2-4 ESV)

Mixed Monday

Panzanella (aka – bread salad)

stuff:

• olive oil (1/4 cup)
• salt (teaspoon)
• pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
• pesto (1/4 cup)
• motz pearls (3/4 cup)
• grape/cherry tomatoes (1 cup)
• bread (3 cups cubed)
• kalamata olives (1/4 cup)
• capers (1 tablespoon)
• vinegar (drizzle)
• diced red onion (2 tablespoons)

steps:

• Please note that all measurements above are approximate and can be adjusted to your liking. I totally winged this recipe based on my neighbors recommendation on what to do with our cookout leftovers. So with that in mind, use what you have and the measurements you like. There’s no wrong way to make this.
• Preheat oven to 375º.
• While the oven is preheating, cube your bread. I used day old hamburger and hotdog buns. The rule of thumb: fill a sheet pan in an even layer. This would feed about 3 people.
• Once bread is cubed, drizzle olive oil on top of it, sprinkle some salt, pepper and whatever other seasoning you’re craving. Toss and spread out bread again in an even layer.
• Pop the bread in the oven for about 10 minutes. Keep your eyes and nose on it. You’ll know it’s done when it looks and smells toasty.
• While the bread is getting toasty, throw the rest of the stuff in the bowl. Whatever you’re feeling, if you love motz, use more of it! I used more tomatoes than motz. I actually used leftover caprese bites from the night before. I also used the leftover pesto as my dressing.
• Once the bread is done, let it cool a bit while you finish prepping the salad. Add the bread when it’s cooled, and toss it all together. Doctor it up with more oil or vinegar (I used pomegranate oil, but balsamic would be great). Taste it and adjust seasonings and ingredients as needed.
• Enjoy!

On a side note, I called this posted “Mixed Monday” because I was in a mixed up state of mind today. Physically, I’m fighting either a cold (my 4th one this year!) or an allergy attack. No fun. Also, I’m in a bit of a professional funk. I got 4 rejection emails today for jobs I applied for. Ugh. So my question to you is, how do you find hope in the unknown and lows of life? I guess I tried to soothe my soreness with bread salad tonight 😉

 

Restart

I started a new YouVersion bible plan today called Restart. Here was the first day’s assignment:

• Make a list of where you need to see your attitude change with God. Identify and list areas of sin, fear, rebellion, distrust and replace that with faith, promise, hope and gratitude through prayer
• Make a list of major mistakes or shortcomings in the past year that you do not want to see repeated.
• Talk to your spouse, parents, friends and Pastors to find our what they see about you that you do not see.

That was only the first day! Tough, right? I just journaled the first part of this exercise. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was a challenge. Reflecting on sin is hard. Coming to terms with weakness and fault is challenging. My list consisted of things like wanting control, not fully trusting, blaming myself, and impatience.

I also listed out how to replace my fears and faults with faith, His promises, and hope. This list was my favorite. Realizing that through it all, we’re not alone and that if we were perfect, we wouldn’t need Jesus. I’m grateful to have areas to improve and to know that we can always Restart.

Windy Wednesday

So as you may or may not know, I live in Florida and this week it was all about hurricane Dorian. Schools, roads, bridges, libraries, and businesses closed. It’s been the big event here. All over the news and my neighborhood. We were all prepared to get a direct hit, but thanks to God for turning this monster storm to the North East. It truly was an answer to prayer.

It’s a great reminder to me that in the midst of our personal and seasonal life storms, we can do our best to be prepared, but ultimately, we have to trust and pray. Actually let me reverse that – PRAY and TRUST. We have to pray with the intention and belief that God is listening and working on our behalf. No matter the outcome, when we believe that His will is done, we can be okay with it. It’s not easy, but necessary in our walk of faith.

I’m currently on a faith walk. Work is scarce and finances make my head spin, but I know He is our provider.

Monday Meal

I loved making August a fervent prayer month. I enjoyed discipling myself to Praise, Repent, Ask and Yes (proclaiming His word!).

Back to our regular scheduled programming. I didn’t have time to cook and photograph a new meal this week (due to hurricane Dorian heading our way) so I thought I’d give a shout out to one of my favorite recipes.

Taco Meatloaf:

https://plowingthroughlife.com/best-taco-meatloaf/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=573034254_21314054_109845

I loved this recipe. I served it over Spanish rice (just a pre-packaged kind) and used the white cheddar organic Doritos in the meatloaf mix. Hubs requested additional Doritos on the side next time 😉

Enjoy!

31!

Last day of fervent prayer month. It flew by. It was such a great daily reminder to reflect on all that there is to praise, repent, ask and yell YES about! Here we go:

P – praise

Thank you Lord for allowing this storm to turn East!

R – repent

Please forgive me for worrying about our finances and the future.

A – ask

I ask for this storm to continue moving away from land. Please protect us.

Y – yes

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. – James‬ ‭5:13‬