haphazard musings

Since we moved

to Newton, we have found some great friends in our Community Life Group (formerly known as Small Groups). 

They have been the source of deep thinking moments, love, encouragement and many laughs over the last two years.

We definitely love them.

So on Friday night we had a little game night - a Rock Star themed night.

We had several costumes and wonderful performances. 

Richard put together a sweet spreadsheet to keep track of scores and we had a battle of the bands on Guitar Hero.

Here are some of our wild and crazy experiences.  Seriously, it really brought some folks out of their comfort zones, and everyone had a great time.

 

Julie and Lori and their group, Raw Nerve, won the competition.  There was some major celebration!

 

The Fantastic Four got second.  They were totally rockin' on "Livin' on a Prayer." 

Our group was Bret, Ryan and I.  We lost.

We lost bad.

Really bad. 

Like by 100,000 points.

I challenge everyone to a rematch!

And just because its cute, Riley was really into the camera.

Favorite Photos

Since I needed something to fill some space, here are some of my favorite photos over the years.  Hopefully, I haven't shared too many of them already.

 

 

 

We are leaving

today.

We are flying south for the winter.

We both enjoy cold weather and snow and stuff, but I think we've had enough for now.

So off we go, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

I am so excited!  I hope you aren't too jealous.

See you soon.  I do have a post or two set up for you to check out while we are basking in the sun.

Have a good week!

Lent.

It seems to be a somewhat controversial subject.  Well maybe controversial isn't the right word.

But it does seem to spark discussion.  Is it necessary?  Do we do it for the right reasons?  Is there meaning behind it?

For those who aren't familiar, Lent is the period of time in the church year before Easter.  It begins on Ash Wednesday that falls 46 days before Easter.  That makes today Ash Wednesday - a day of repentance and prayer - called such for the ancient tradition of putting ashes on oneself to show your remorse for your sins.

Anyway, my point is, I grew up in a church that observes Lent, so its something I like to do. 

So I have decided I will be changing two things during Lent.  I thought it would be helpful to make myself accountable, so now you all know.

1. I will be giving up sweets (to include but not limited to ice cream, brownies, donuts, cookies, cake, etc). 

As seems to be the nature of most people my sweet tooth and unsquishable need for candy/chocolate is great and the temptation is always there.  So over the next 40 (technically 46 days including Sundays), I will be sugar free. (Including my little trip next week that will be bound to have lots of yummy things.)

So look out.  I might be a little more salty than usual...ha ha...well I thought it was funny.  

2. I will be working on Drawing Near to God through a study put on by Fellowship Bible Church in Northwest Arkansas. 

The study is a series of sermons and daily Bible studies provided by the church.  Thanks to my new accountability buddy, hopefully I will be able to get through all 50 days of study during Lent and a couple extra days.  If you want to check out the study itself - its here and the first podcast is here.

So as I say goodbye to sugar and hello (more often) to God, I will hopefully be reminded about the sacrifice Jesus made so that I can know of His deep love for me and the grace that will one day lead me home.

I enjoyed

two of my favorite things this weekend.  I thought it would be fun to share about them.

Lately, I have been interested in trying new things in the kitchen.  My latest endeavor was inspired by Pioneer Woman.

Ryan thinks I am crazy and going to clog up his arteries, and I just might if I keep baking her desserts. :)

Lucky for both of us, this is going to change.  But that is a later post.

So back to the story about two things that I love - a good donut and the Olympics. 

I will start with the Olympics, since its a shorter story.   (Well, I guess it short to me, its all relative.)

I LOVE the Olympics! With all my heart.

And I have loved them since I was a very little girl. 

I remember watching them in the winter with my family while creating Valentine's Day cards for my classmates.  (Or was that watching Roots the TV mini-series...its hard to remember.) 

Either way, I love the stories of the athletes of their ridiculous and awesome commitments to be really great at something.  

I love the little side-reports they do on the host country or the athlete's inspiring tale.

I love when people win.  In all honesty (you can call me anti-patriotic if you want), I don't care if the winner is American - its an added bonus -  I just feel it when someone has worked hard, delivered a flawless (or nearly-lets face it no one's perfect) performance, and deserves to win.

Love it.

So back to the story - we watched the opening ceremonies with these folks...

 

(Actually, just the lady - her fellow was out of town.)

and

(I love this picture.)

We ate wantons and sushi and orange chicken in honor of the international event.

The opening ceremony was good - long but good.

So while the boys "watched" (read sports illustrated, played games on their phones, slept), the girls made donuts.

I used this recipe.

And this is how it went down.

Friday morning - I made the dough.  It had to rise for 8 hours in the fridge.  You might ask, why didn't I make it Thursday night?  That's because I am a ding-bat and decided not to go to the store because it "wasn't necessary" and promptly forgot all about making the dough ahead of time.

Anyway, this is what it took - every bowl and like 17 spoons.

And, yes, in case you were wondering, my kitchen looks like that every time I make something.

Here's one "in the process" picture."

 

I love my mixer.  So glad I have one.  The recipe requires mixing/kneeding the dough for over ten minutes.  That would be exhausting if I had to do it by hand.  Whew.

This is one of those things that requires a little more planning than I thought, but on top of the 8 refrigerator hours it needs another 1 hour (minimum) to rise after rolling and cutting. 

So finally around 10:30 we started frying.

 

Yum! Rings of dough in a vat of oil.  Nothing better!

 

Glaze is obviously an important element in a successful donut.  Stir Julie Stir.

 

Ryan supported our efforts and those of our amazing Olympians by wearing his hat with the ear flaps.  Honestly, I have no idea why he wore the hat all evening around the house, let alone why he even owns such a chapeau.

And because I know you are dying to see the final product...

 

 

Not quite as pretty as Krispie Kreme, but you know - looks aren't everything.

So around 11:00 we all enjoyed a fresh and warm donut on behalf of all the hard working and seriously in shape athletes who obviously do not partake of rings of butter and sugar in a vat of grease.

I just figure someone should be enjoying the goodness, why shouldn't it be me?

My new

shoes...

 

are number 71.

#71.  Buy red shoes.

Check out the rest of my 101's here.

I have a few more to update with pictures.  But one at a time. :)   I like to keep you in suspense.

But I have always, always wanted red shoes, but never felt like spending the money. 

These are the perfect shoes for me.  I now wear them all the time. 

If they are all you see, it because they are my new love.

I do, however, feel obligated to tell my old love (which you have seen before) that I still love you, it might just be a while before I come back to you.

Which oddly leads me to a song.  Just think of my old love.  This is their lament.

In all seriousness, I do love this song and the simplicity of it and the longing in her voice.  One of my favorites.

 

Just so everyone is clear...

my 13th year was by NO means the best year of my life.

So let's be honest. I had ...

braces (for 6 whole years), 

glasses/contacts (thanks for contacts Mom & Dad - saved from humiliation of the wretched purple glasses)

a broken leg (walking cast - way less cool than crutches)

bangs (not cute side bangs, but full on bangs)

and 

my ENTIRE family was at my school, all day, every day (that was good when I forgot lunch money, but other than that, I could have used a little space : ).  

But overall, I had good friends and was someone I could like and was confident in that.

What more can a 13 year old girl ask for?

So, yeah, its not actually being 13 that I miss, its the confidence that I knew who I was, and at that time what my purpose was and I was good at it.

Maybe one of these days I will figure that out again, but until then, I will have confidence that Jesus knows who I am and what my purpose is.  

Not something I am good at necessarily -
                                       but something to work for (ie. a purpose).

It was one long night...

without a lot of sleep...but it was a BLAST.  

Yep that's right.  That is 12 seventh graders on my couch. 

I now know why my mom limited the slumber parties I had as a girl:

Being the adult is exhausting.  We did however have lots and lots of fun.

We played Ninja.

 

And "I have never".

We did lots of hair.

 

And you know what...

It made me miss being 13.

Which is saying something.  13 was not my best year. 

Let me just say, awkward was definitely a regular word in my vocabulary.

My transition from

to

was not graceful.

I miss talking about boys and miss being concerned about whether my homework was done or my basketball clothes were clean.

I miss when my biggest fear was that no boys would like me.

But these girls, they are graceful and lovely and I love their hearts.

And their pants.

Then they fell asleep watching 13 Going on 30 that exactly embodies my feelings of being 13, 13 years ago and now nearing 30.

I love that they chose that movie.  I hope they got the message.

I hope they had as much fun as I did.

A little honesty.

I know that all of you are dying for more information about me right?  You must be or you wouldn't be reading this blog, that is in fact all about me.  

So, in light of your interest (and my desire to be more "emotional") here is a little insight about me that I have learned in the past week.

Over the last few weeks, I have been struggling to find my purpose. 

While I am sure every one of you reading this has struggled with finding your purpose and while I am sure that this is not the first or the last time I will struggle with it either, I just thought I'd share a little knowledge about myself that I have gained.

So, anyway, in the past week, I have had the opportunity to take two different personality and/or giftedness tests.  I really enjoyed them both for different reasons.

The first one was through Prairie View here in Newton and it was called the Process Communication Model and basically it assesses me through 6 different personality perspectives (how I see the world) and then tells me how those six are arranged.  My result (or current phase if you've taken it) is Workaholic by way of a Reactor. 

(If you want to know more about those, just let me know.  This could go on forever if I tried to tell you about it all now.)

Then I took the Spiritual Gifts or Uniquely You seminar at Grace Community Church.  The results from that one said directly if all your graph plotting points are above the line (mine were), then you have a very strong desire to over-achieve.  Which according to the facilitator is only enhanced by my type D personality (meaning I am logical, determined and responsible).

What is the point?

I am sure you are wondering now that I have rambled on for about 3 years.

I struggle in finding my purpose and struggle in my daily walk with my Savior because I am a control FREAK. 

Ok, so control freak might be a little strong.  But I do like to control things, I don't like to ask for help (just ask Ryan or my parents - its bad), and I do like to be overly responsible. 

I really discovered this last night, when I asked my friend Julie if she would be willing to be my accountability and prayer partner.  It was so, so, so hard to ask her to help me. 

When I told her it was hard to ask, she said, "Why?!?"  Which is a valid question, because we talk about just about everything else in the world.

I told her "I don't know."  But really, I do.  I like to be responsible and not ask for help.

So, in conclusion, perhaps I am struggling to find where I belong because I am not willing to give up my "need to achieve" or my "need to control" and listen to what God is asking me to do.

Perhaps that is why He changed my plans for continuing school this semester. 

Perhaps it was God telling me, in the words of Sister Mary Clarence, its time to

"wake up and pay attention."

If I want to be somebody or go somewhere, I need to wake up and pay attention. 

God does have a plan for my life.  A plan for me to be somebody and go somewhere for Him.

And, I need to believe it and have a little faith.

Just to tide you over

until I get more time to create a post about our big weekend, I wanted to share a secret with you.

All it takes to keep little Finley Frasier happy is snow and am empty plastic water bottle.  He will play with it for hours. 

Seriously.

Then you just recycle it. 

Best dog toy ever.

Here he is in all his ridiculous glory.