Big Bowl 'o Greens

Let the suppers of salad for the week begin today. All in all, not too bad. However, I accidentally got turnip greens instead of spinach and a zucchini instead of a cucumber*. What can I say, a "quick trip" to the grocery store is super stressful at 5:00 on the way home. I added carrots, craisins, sunflower seeds, beef (I love red meat!), pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

* Yes, I am aware this may be a pattern for me. Did everyone else know that hominy is not the same thing as corn?

Turkey Day, etc.

Thanksgiving Day consisted of an early morning drive to Savannah to see Grammy in her assisted living home. Recently, she's been down-sized in her home, from an apartment to a room. She's still quite unhappy about it, mainly because they have an eye on her at all times. Even in her mid 80's and with a failing body, she's still a spit fire. We ate lunch there with one of her friends, and I must say that the food was infinitely better this year than last year. Thanks for kicking it up a notch!

After lunch and a bit of visiting, we headed back to Charleston. Thankfully I packed a book: Mary Higgins Clark's I Heard that Song Before. A good, quick read. In non Thanksgiving tradition, mom, dad, and I enjoyed a frozen pizza for supper that night.

Friday morning, the rents and I headed to Wilmington to spend time with Granddaddy. It was a nice visit to see him -- he's such a hoot. We headed home Sunday after lunch...it is nice to be home!

Some highlights:

• I bought a pair of skinny jeans!
• I (finally) got paid after my month of working. In the words of Courtney: Those dirty pirate federal hookers took a lot of my money. I agree, Court; I agree!
• Chick-fil-A peppermint chocolate milkshake. SOOO good! Go get one!
• Finding out that Granddaddy has a pair of fuggs. So funny.
• Watching Granddaddy in his new Rascal scooter -- complete with an orange flag on the back. And I have to say, it's surprisingly quiet...he can really sneak up on you!
• Seeing a store called "Big Gals Boutique" ... really?!?
• Mom and I ran lots of errands and only got lost once!

All in all, I have a lot to be thankful for! My lord and savior -- and being able to have a full life through Jesus Christ, my family, good friends, a job, (too much) food, a place to rest my head at night, and so much more!

I am sad for vacation to end and to return to 5:30 wake up calls... Also, the "salad diet" may start up this week in order for my pants to fit.

Mornings.

I will preface this post by saying I have NEVER been a morning person. A little fact about me that my mom still can't fully grasp, and so at her house I am still woken up to a high-pitched, "Good Morning Sissy!" Ugh. Due to my disdain for mornings, having curly hair is a huge blessing and allows me to shower at night, wake up with dry hair, and cut down on some of the morning routine.

Currently, my ideal morning goes like this: alarm starts going off at 5:30, get up at 6:00 (thanks, Courtney, for turning me into a snoozer), spend some time in prayer and in the Word, get ready for work at 6:30 (wash face, make up, get dressed, make lunch, etc.), and out of the door BY 7:05.

This is a short work week -- 3 days -- wahoo!

Monday: I continued snoozing until 6:45 just because I didn't want to get out of the bed. I was able to spend time with the Lord that afternoon. And Monday night I set my alarm early and went to bed earlier than I had been, so I would get up on time Tuesday morning.

Tuesday: I woke up feeling very refreshed. This is a rare occasion and I thoroughly enjoy it. Until I look at the clock and see that it is 6:30! Apparently my alarm didn't go off?!?

Wednesday: My alarm started going off at 5:30. I snoozed as usual. Then I woke up and somehow it was already 6:24. Really? So I decided to shut my eyes just for a minute more until 6:30. I opened them and it was 7:05!! I yelled, "are you kidding me?" My roommate asked if I was ok. I tossed on jeans (praise the Lord we could wear jeans today!), washed my face, and was out the door and in the car by 7:10.

No make up this morning. For someone with AA this is quite an issue of pride. But life shall go on. I am dreading Harborview Road -- some mornings it so busy that it is the bane of my existence. Yet because public school is out it is virtually traffic less. Yay! Who knew there were so many school kids on the Island?

All in all, it has been a rough week morning-wise. But it's a short week and I am super thankful. And ready to spend time with some of my family for Thanksgiving. And ready to eat lots of yummy things.

Hopefully next week will go more according to schedule...

Food for Thought

I saw a buddy of mine the other day and we were briefly catching up on things. We have both made some life changes recently, and at some point I asked him if he liked his new job. He replied, "I'm not as stressed out as I was at my old job...I didn't need to be stressed out over things that don't matter all that much to me. So the new job is fine...honestly, it's a means to an end. Really."

Hmmm... Those specific words (means to an end) made me think...

I, too, feel less stressed at my new job and mainly think it's because I am able to completely leave work at work. Over the years, I have trained myself to separate work life from personal life as much as possible...practically by going on a walk when I get home from work. Not only is it my form of exercise, but it also helps me clear my head and help me put the work day behind me. It's also beneficial for me (currently) that I'm not friends with my co-workers outside of the office...so work isn't much of my after work conversations.

But I often times think that I still haven't found my dream job...and I want one! Perhaps I have, but haven't been doing this job long enough to know. :) Yet assuming this isn't it, how much effort should I put into finding the best job for me? When job hunting, I heard and thought the gamut of thoughts from "God is big enough to give you a job that you actually enjoy and are made for" to "A job is a job, especially in these economic times." At the end of the day, I think I believe both. Knowing God is in control of all things and is certainly powerful to do anything at anytime, I do trust that I could have my dream job in an instant if that was the Lord's will. Yet in the meantime, I want to be grateful for the job I have been blessed with. So is my job a means to an end (eating) or is it more than that? Should it be more than that?

When looking at the doctrine of the humanity of Jesus in Christian Doctrine senior year at Presbyterian, Dr. Hobbie (wonderful, fabulous, spunky man!) asked the class if we though Jesus ever had an erection. That's another topic completely and a discussion for another day. (However, for what it's worth, I think He did.) But that train of thought leads me to ask: Did Jesus enjoy His job?

Not His job as a full time minister (ministry vs. vocation vs. job still confuses me some and I'm not up for that right now), but did Jesus enjoy being a carpenter? Was that a passion of His? Was He simply following in His father's footsteps? Was He buying time until He turned water into wine at a wedding and then changed the world forever by teaching and healing and giving Himself for us?

Any thoughts out there?

Good Times and Great Oldies

This weekend I was in Columbia/Lexington for an engagement party, weekend with my PC girls, church and hanging out with old roommates that I love. Here are a few highlights:

• Sex in the City -- season 4
• Lots of yummy cheese products -- So much cheese, in fact, that you craved a salad to help it go down. But so good!
• New Moon!
• White elephant gift exchange -- I'm the proud owner of a 24 pack of double roll toilet paper. Charmin no less -- the good stuff.
• Taking pictures with a timer. (Thanks, Margaret!)
• Good sermon at First Pres -- on asking the Lord not to lead us into temptation.
• Moe's. On Main Street -- the best Moe's ever.
• Great friends.
• Lots of laughter.
• Designing tattoos. Don't ask. :)

PS -- The brownie pudding was fabulous. As if one would expect anything less from the Contessa.

Goodies

So last night I was baking up a storm. We're having our office Thanksgiving lunch today -- I'm already hungry. Apparently the entire office smells delightful from the turkey cooking in the oven. I made a cheesecake. Another one. I felt more confident in it doing it since the last one turned out really well, but it takes a really long time to bake! Hopefully the office will enjoy it.

AND I made a brownie pudding...what is that you ask? Well my gameplan was to take step-by-step pictures to show you. Unfortunately, I forgot about it until 1/2 way through. I'm hoping the final version tastes as good as the batter because the batter was unbelievable. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe. She is absolutely my favorite person to watch cook...I'm still trying to think of ways to become her friend so that I can eat her food and be on her show. Let me know if you have any ideas. Here's the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/brownie-pudding-recipe/index.html

Changes I made:

• I didn't add the framboise -- just because I didn't have it.
• I used some vanillla extract rather than a vanilla bean. Again, because it was easier.
• I made 1.5 times the recipe. It's for my PC girls weekend, and let's be honest, 1 recipe just wouldn't be enough!

Also: Remember when I checked the humidity level last night and it seemed like today would be a fine day to straighten my hair. So I did. And of course it is misty and humid this morning...I could already feel my hair curling up a bit. I may or may not have brought my straightener to work with me. And it may or may not be plugged in, on my desk, and ready for a touch up at a moment's notice.

Who is my God?

For the past few weeks, I've been doing a self-guided study of the characteristics of the Lord. A friend recommended it to me (thanks, Shannon!) and I loved the idea. It's been so good for me to get to know more about who my God is. Warning: this "study" is not fancy or polished. So far, I've looked at the Lord being gracious and being powerful. Last night I started looking at the Lord being just. I loved this verse more than before and thought I'd share.

Deuteronomy 32:4

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.

This short verse has so much to offer. The Lord, our God, our maker and redeemer, is a rock. And not just a rock, but He is THE rock. He is the firm foundation for us to stand on. We can go to Him with anything and everything. We can rely on Him and depend on Him and trust that He will be strong and won’t move. I think of a large boulder and how sturdy it is – how it withstands the elements and surroundings to remain still and strong. And the Lord is the biggest bounder there is. And that is just from the first two words of this verse! The Lord is my rock and all of his works are perfect…even the works I don’t like or agree with…they are perfect. It is my misunderstanding or pride or selfishness that is so imperfect. But I can praise the Lord, my Lord for ALL of His works. I can praise the Lord that I feel unsettled, that there is pain in the world, that money is a challenge, that I am unsure of my life or what lies ahead, that people suffer, that I long for more. I can only praise Him for these things because the hard things are the things that draw us to the Lord as we see more and more of His character, in all of its perfection and glory. When the world disappoints, He is there.

And I don’t have to doubt His choices, His ways, His works because they are all justice. My God is just. Webster’s defines justice (as an adverb): having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason; faithful to an original; conforming to a standard of correctness; legally correct. The Lord is and/or upholds each of these things. He is the basis of all fact and reason and thereby conforms to Himself; He is faithful to His ways and truths – as He is the original – the alpha (and the omega!); He is correct in all of His ways; and His ways are legally binding (I especially think of the old testament here). There are no grounds for me to doubt Him and because His ways are correct (and also good!), I can rest in His decisions. They are not arbitrary; rather, they have been well thought out and well purposed. These things are giving me all the more reason to trust His ways. So often I am ungrateful – a nasty heart. I want so much to be pure in heart and lovely in being content with the Lord and what He has given me, and how He deals with me bountifully. Come quickly, Jesus, and change my heart. Unlike me, my God is upright and is without sin. He is just and upright. I have been called to follow Him – and a part of that is being just and upright in my doings as well. What are the areas that I have not been correct and godly? Job 34:10 explains these qualities of my Lord in other words, “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that He should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that He should do wrong.” Next time I am frustrated or confused by my life or surroundings or cards that others have been dealt, I hope that I remember this. I can be (and am, at times) wicked; God cannot be and has never been and will never be wicked. I do wrong; God can do no wrong. It is his nature to be perfect and just in all things…it is who He is.