Pasta Salad

Thank you, Pinterest! FANTASTIC pasta salad :)

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 package bow-tie pasta

1 lb. fresh broccoli

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups halved, seedless, red grapes

-Bake pecans at 350 degrees on baking sheet for 5-7 minutes or until toasted.

-Prepare pasta according to package directions.

-Cut broccoli florets into small pieces.

-Whisk together mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, sugar, and salt until well blended. Add broccoli, hot cooked pasta, and grapes. Mix together well, allow to chill for 3 hours. Put pecans into salad just before serving.

*I rinsed the pasta with cold water and the salad was ready to serve immediately! What a tasty treat!

Heavy Boots

"For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance."
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

This seems to be a season of crying and grief for my own life and for those around me. So many different painful things have come up for so many that I know. A broken heart, devastating sickness, a loss of someone dear. Lots of heavy boots walking around.

I'm not sure what the Lord is doing, but so many seem to be weighed down with the hurt and pain that come with our broken world, and rightfully so in a sense. I'm looking forward to the end of this season, when the "time for dancing and laughing" will seem so much brighter because of the dark this season is holding.

It's funny the way the Lord times the trials in our lives. Some of them seem like they couldn't have come at a worse time, but really they came at the most perfect time... I'm learning, as of late, that what I know and what I feel are two things that, more often than not, could not be more different from one another. I thank the Lord for the Truth that my feelings are not reality.

I feel like this is the worst most difficult time I could be going through after such a sweet and treasured time, but I know that the Lord is bigger than this and this is not the worst thing, this is life in our fallen world and the Lord is allowing it becasue it will result in His best for me.

I feel like I'm alone, but I know that I have endless support from incredible people surrounding me and seeking Christ on my behalf and I have a savior who never leaves.
I feel like when this season is said and done it will be impossible to be fully joyful again, I know that joy is from the Lord and is choice and I will choose joy even before this season has passed.

I know that others are hurting in far different ways, but with the same amount of pain that need me to lift them up in prayer. To sit with them and weep. To encourage them not to believe the lie that this will never end. To be the friend that I am called to be for them. To point them to Jesus and strive to be as selfless as He is.

DIYs

Over the last two months, Daniel and I have been settling into our little rental home nicely. As newlyweds, we're not exactly rollin' in the dough BUT thanks to pinterest and a lack of school for the first time in the last 17 years I've taken to decorating on a budget. And when I say on a budget, I'm talking like dollar store and around the house odds and ends.

Mason jar vases with DIY felt flowers was my first endeavor.

Soon followed by my pictures frame sharpie/dry erase calendar.

Then my twine wrapped monogram.

And lastly my fall burlap wreath with more felt flowers (I have an excess of burlap right now...)

My next project is going to be dozy... simple rehopolstery tricks will hopefully turn my ugly goodwill/garage sale armchairs into extra, comfy seating for our living room. I think working part time and a lack of school has made me overestimate my craftiness, or maybe just fully embrace it.

I've gotta say, I'm diggin' this DIY crafty stuff.

Amazima Ministires... again.

Remember way back, when I did a little post about Amazima Ministies and one of the most amazing people I've ever read about? (If not, it's right here.)

Well, her book just came out! This girl is seriously an amazing woman of the Lord. The sacrafices she's made are unimaginable and her honesty, spirit, and faith through everything the Lord has required of her is one of the truest testimonies to the love of Christ that I've ever heard. Her book is here and can be bought a few different places.

I can't really fathom what her life is truly like. The heartache, the joy, any of it. I pray that my heart and actions would be as willing as hers when the Lord calls me to "Go", even in the smallest of ways. Even when those who care about me the most say "stay."

Pinterest

Yes, I've jumped on that band wagon. In a most ridiculous manner.
I'm a little obsessed, but just in time since I'm not in school and have a house to decorate.
It's turned me into a crafting fool... Just see for yourself. Here are my first two endeavors:

My scrapbook paper, magnetic, refrigerator weekly menu and grocery list!

 cloths pin picture frame (don't judge my blurry phone picture)

And just you wait... I've got three more little projects in the works and TONS of mason jar things that need doing.
Consider yourself warned, as pinterest takes over most of my computer time what it results in will take over this blog... at least for a while. :)

They're Up!

Searching for the Light Photography posted some of our wedding photos here! Take a look! :)

because things aren't always easy

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."

John 16:33

Honeymooners

So we went to Jamaica for our honeymoon! It was just lovely :) Let me tell you though, that I probably would say that about almost anywhere after all the work that the last 6 months held. Having a week to hang out with my favorite person and do a whole lot of sleeping in and hanging out, you just can't really go wrong there! With plenty of beach walking, eating, and swimming, pictures aren't very exciting (and in all honesty, my camera was often forgotten) but here they are anyway :)

Our lovely room

 the view from our room

 creepy crab

 Fancy breakfast