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.