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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Perseverance

Perseverance. Strength. Endurance.

All words that I would never use to describe myself.

Tonight, I feel so empowered. I have never been athletic, never run more than a half mile, until recently.

Lets back up a couple days. On Saturday I went for a run. One that I thought would be pretty easy. I was supposed to run 10 minutes, walk 3, run another 10. I had run 2 8 min jogs and a 5 min a couple days earlier. Saturday, my run was awful. My head wasn't in it and the whole time all I could think about was how much I hated what I was doing and how I just wanted to be done. All of this was made worse when I looked at my watch to find out I was only 5 minutes into my run. I made it through the first 10 minute run, barely. Sadly, I was close to home so i just gave up. I hate giving up, but I knew my head just wasn't in it. I kicked myself for a little bit and then decided I would try again in a few days.

Today, I got the itch to run, which is very rare. I decided to take advantage of it once it cooled off a little and the sun went down. I began my run hoping just to be able to do the two ten minute runs. I prayed as I did my warm up walk, Jesus give me strength, give me perseverance, help me to trust you to get me through this.

Well, He answered. I ran 20 minutes without stopping. Just about 2 miles. This isn't a lot for a lot of people. For me, its huge. Its not just about how far I ran. Its about God's promises and His answers to my prayers. It's for developing those traits that I have always longed to have. It's about trusting God and trusting myself. It's about way more than running.

Thank you Jesus for your promises. Thank you that you never leave us, never let us down, and always pull through. Thank you for giving me strength and perseverance. Thank you for teaching me about You through my running.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Joy of Baking

As many of you may know, I love to cook and bake. I used to say that I hated baking because it was too precise, now I love it. Maybe it's my sweet tooth, but I cannot get enough of it sometimes. Now, add a pinch of photography and you have my new endeavor. I plan to begin documenting my baking and cooking through my photography.

I was inspired by bakerella.com. The recipe I made tonight can be found here: Bakerella

Now, some of my pictures are very similar to hers, so no points for originality today. However, I loved combining two of my passions!

Here is the recipe:
Congo Bars

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.



mmm...chocolate chips








The end result... Sooo good!







I think I may go eat another! ;)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

1 mile

Thanks to C25k, I ran a mile today without stopping. Hopefully, soon I will be able to run 3 miles without stopping. 3 months ago I couldn't run to the stop sign on my street. 3 months ago I was dying after running only 60 seconds. Today, I ran 10:49 and cold have kept going. I will not lie, it was a slow mile, but I didn't stop and that's all that matters to me.

This has gotten me thinking about life. Paul was dead on when he described life as running a race. Running takes perseverance, something I sometimes lack. Life takes perseverance, you have to push through all of the bad days, hang ups, and baggage to get to the good parts. You have to trust God to sustain you. In running, you also have to trust God, but even more simply you have to trust your body to keep going. There are so many parallels that I could fill up a long blog with them.

I think God has been using my running to teach me perseverance. It's been a rough 6 months and I've had a hard time just pushing through. I keep wondering what God has been teaching me, but I think I'm catching on. I need to trust God to sustain me in the tough times, just like I have to trust that my body will allow me to run. I have to rely on Him instead of trying to do everything by myself. I have to keep pushing through this rut and persevere.

Romans 5:3-5 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

On a somewhat related note, this rut really does seem to be lifting. I got prayer at the last clear vision and it was so helpful. I had asked God to send someone to pray for me that I trusted and that was unbiased. He answered. I was able to let go of some of the hurt I have been holding onto and allow God to deal with it rather than me trying and trying. Things are looking up :)

On an unrelated note, I found a summer job. I am sooo excited about it. I am working at Food Finders Food Bank as the Program Coordinator for their summer food service program. My job is to run a program that gives lunch to kids who might otherwise go hungry. I LOVE it!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

3 Years



Three Years ago today, I married my best friend. Three years ago today, at this time, I was waking up excited to be a bride. Three years ago today, I realized what love was. Three years ago, I loved my husband less than I do today.





Marriage is a beautiful thing and I have been so privileged to have chosen to build one with such an amazing man. The last three years have been full of ups, downs, backs, and forths. They have been stretching, exciting, and full of love. They have been funny, sad, happy, and scary.



I feel like I should let the world in on the secret that is my husband. He loves Jesus and aspires to lead our marriage biblically. He is kind and still flirts with me like he did in high school. He has a heart for children and I cannot wait to see what he will do as a father. He is funny and we laugh often. He is a man's man who loves sports, outdoors, and other manly things. He is quiet, but thoughtful. He is insanely organized *cough ocd cough*, but its good because I'm not. This next thought may seem a bit odd, but its important. He respects me, speaks kindly to me in public, and stands up for me. He makes submitting to him and serving him easy because he serves me and loves me like Jesus loved the church.





Our marriage has been such a ride and I am excited to see where God leads us next. I love my husband more today than I did the day I married him. I often wonder what it will be like 10, 20, 30 years from now. I pray that God blesses us with a long, healthy, fun life together. I am learning, everyday it seems, how to be a godly woman and wife to him. I only hope that I can be as good to him as he has been to me.

Husby, I know you will read this. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being all of those things that I listed above. Thank you for loving me, even when I go a little crazy or say silly things. Thank you for having a heart that longs to serve the poor and orphans. I love and appreciate you.









Sunday, May 9, 2010

Baby L.

Hello All,

As promised, here are some pictures from my first Baby Session! I was so thrilled with how these turned out!










Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Running

So, as some of you know, I restarted the C25K program (for those who don't, google couch to 5k and you will see what I'm talking about). This time I am running with a friend. Let me tell you, running with a friend has made a lot of difference in how far I've gotten with this program. No longer can I just decide I don't want to run today because Dorothy and I have already made plans to run. Also, as we are running I don't stop because I'm tired, I keep going. Running is very mental and having support really helps me in that area.

Anyways, I'm writing this entry as I wait for Dorothy so we can go run week 4 day 2. This week is much harder than the rest. We have begun running 1/2 miles. This doesn't sound like much to many of you, but to me its a lot. I do not know if I have run 1/2 since middle school, even then I'm pretty sure I walked some of it.

This program has gotten me thinking a lot about perseverance. How do we keep going when things get tough? This is especially hard for me. For certain areas of my life I can keep going through the tough times. This happens with friendships, marriage, and school. For some unknown reason to me, I have the darndest time stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing anything physical that pushes my limits.

Well, I finished my run today. Accidentally lost 30 seconds on the last run, but I know I could have kept going.

So I'll keep pushing along... all the way to 3 miles!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tradition

I should be writing a paper about my groups class, but it seems fitting that I blog instead. The title of my post is tradition and it is tradition for me to blog as a form of procrastination. Why end that tradition now?

It's odd but I seem to be at my most creative when I am putting off writing academic papers. You would think I would allow some of this creativity to flow into those papers rather than aimlessly out into bloggerland.

Update on my mom... She is out! She went home this week and is doing much better. She still isn't feeling well because of the steroids she is on. This is an answer to prayer! I was getting really worried when she wasn't going home within a day or too. If you all could continue to pray for healing that would be awesome.

Update on photography... I shot my first baby session today with little baby Landon. I can't wait to get working on them! I plan to post them soon. Sadly, papers come before pictures. Also, if you know anyone who needs some pictures send them my way! I could really use the income/experience this summer.

Life seems to be on the upswing. Classes are wrapping up, weather is warming up, and I'm lightening up. I feel like I'm on the verge of this rut ending, but I'm still feeling the effects. I haven't figured out what God is trying to teach me with this, probably because I haven't had a lot of connection with Him lately...maybe that's it.

Well, I really should get back to (ok, lets be honest...begin) writing one of my 5 papers due this week. One more week...One more week...One more week.

Summer, please come soon.