Faith of a Zucchini

Do you ever map our your life and hope that it turns out that way.  For instance.... as a little girl, did you already have your life planned. You knew when you'd go to college, get married, how many kids you'd have (in what particular order), where you'd live, what your husband's job would be, where you would go on vacation, and what would have for dinner every night.  Now how often does life happen exactly as we planned.  Not often.

If you asked me 2 years ago if I'd be living the the middle of the great plains, I probably would have thought you were crazy.  No I didn't have life "Planned," but living here.... definitely not in the plans.  Seriously, I cried at the mention of turning in a resume to maybe even consider moving out here.  But as life takes unexpected turns, we learn to adjust.  I LOVE it out here.  It's beautiful, flat, so green, but flat, the people are wonderful, nice and so welcoming, living in a flat place. Seriously I love it! I pretend there's mountains (thank you big fluffy clouds).  We learned to adjust and our plans adjusted. (My Home) 

Our plans didn't change.... the timing of our plans changed.  The husband was set to go to graduate school while I worked. Moving out here, well the opposite has now happened.  Today I was my last day at my job and I start graduate school in 3 weeks.  Not in the plan.  The plan was the husband going to graduate school.  But here we are adjusting and learning.

Sometimes I have this grand plan in my head, down to the particular timing everything.  But sometimes that timing I have in my head isn't what my Heavenly Father wants.  And that is what's hard.  It's a struggle to understand the timing of things in life.  Why some people marry young and others when they are older.  Why do some people have kids super easy, and others struggle and it takes time.  Why am I going to graduate school now and not the husband.  Timing.  It's all about timing.  We think we know ourselves so well and can see everything perfectly.  We know the plan best for us.  We know the best timing.  But truthfully, we don't. 

Heavenly Father knows the best timing because only He can truly see everything.  So why when I know that His plan is best is it still hard.  It's life.  It's something that I have to learn.  Learn to have faith.  Faith in His plan.  Faith in my decision.  Faith in myself.  That's what it all comes down too. Faith.  And sometimes, faith is hard to have.  But all we need is a little ounce of desire to have faith and from there it grows.  There's a primary song that compares faith to a seed. "Faith is like a little seed, if planted it will grow."  Isn't it amazing that HUGE zucchini grow in my garden, and they all started from a little seed.  I want faith of a Zucchini.

As we strive to increase our faith, Heavenly Father gives us encouragement along the way.  He is always there.  He knows we struggle to understand His planning, so He's there to help us along the way.  Heavenly Father sends us tender mercies to let us know He's there.  Plans change, and we adjust, but we can make it through with Heavenly Father's help.  As we strive to follow His plan, we'll learn and we'll grow.  Remember, everything will work out, just havefaith in His timing.

What's for Dinner?

That was the question on our mind last night. What's for Dinner?  Seemed like we had no food in the house. Or at least nothing I wanted to cook. I wanted real dinner but didn't want to spend a lot of time on it. I remembered a cook book "101 things to do with _______"  I have the potato one, but wanted a ramen recipe.  So to google I went. I found one for an Asian dish. I tweaked it based on what we had and it turned out delicious. Here is a rough idea of the recipe.

Cook ramen noodles for five minutes and drain.
Cook veggies (red and yellow peppers and peas) in coconut oil with garlic until tender.
Add soy sauce and terriakyi sauce to veggies. (Maybe 2 tbls each, use best guess)
Add small scoop brown sugar to veggies.
Add ramen chicken flavoring to veggies.
Add drained noodles to veggies and mix all together.
Enjoy! 

Brown sugar is becoming my secret ingredient. Adds a little sweetness ro dishes.

Here's the finished product.

Happy cooking!

Life is A Garden

We have a garden. It's a pretty good sized garden.  We don't have room at our house to put it, so we have a plot at a community garden.  We are growing (trying to grow) all sorts of vegetables.  Here's what we planted this year.

Peas
Corn
Onions
Potatoes
Garlic
More Onions
Carrots (nothing grew... at all)
Spinach
More Onions
Cucumbers
Zucchini (5 plants, hence all the zucchini growing)
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Pumpkin
Sunflowers (died in the freeze)
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Peppers
Jalepanos


It's been so fun to have meals knowing that all or most of the food we are eating came from our own garden.  We started everything from seed. Some things, like the carrots didn't do so well.  Others, like zucchini and pumpkin.... Just took off and are growing great.  You know what else is growing great.... WEEDS!

It has been raining a lot here lately, which is great for the crops, but that means the weeds grow crazily. Life has gotten busy and so the garden is usually one of the first things to get neglected.  What does not going to the garden for week plus rainy weather for a week equal.  A garden full of WEEDS! They are almost as tall as the zucchini plants.  It was crazy! The husband and I went to the garden tonight to try and control what we could of the weeds.

We didn't prep our garden plot (tested not tilling the whole plot) and prairie grass grows great there, so weeds are well, always a part of your garden plot there.  As weeds started to pop up, we tried to control them, but eventually the weeds got more crazy and we (aka I) got Lazy and well, we let the weeds cohabitant with some of the vegetables. We were keeping the weeds at bay so the vegetable plants were still in control.  Well, as you read, soon the weeds seemed to take over. This is when I realized, Life is like a garden.

Sometimes we let things, that aren't the best for us, co-habitat in our life.  Those things can be anything from bad language, getting frustrated easily, missing our scripture reading, etc. What ever those weeds are in our life, we keep that at bay, while we are still in control.  But happens when we start not paying attention to those weeds in life.  They get out of control and become CRAZY WEEDS!  Before we know it, those weeds in our life are taking over.  We thought we had them in control, but as soon as we get comfortable, they take over.

We have to keep trying every day to be a better person.  Yes I may still let little things frustrate me, but if I realize that, and keep trying every day, I'm slowly killing those weeds in my life. Every day is a new day.  A new day to go and pull those weeds out of life.  But soon it rains, and they pop up again.  And when it rains, sometimes it pours and those weeds grow fast.  We always have to be on the lookout.

I guess the point is, we may think we have our weeds under control, but as soon as we get comfortable and forget to maintain our garden, that is when those weeds creep up on us.  So let's try everyday to be better than we were the day before.  We will all make mistakes, but the great news is, there's tomorrow, when we can try again.

Remember....

To Do or Not To Do

Have you ever done something that you really didn't want to do? Usually that consists of doing homework, cleaning the house, pulling weeds.... things that just need to get done but you don't necessarily want to do.

Today, I did something that I didn't want to do.  Something that was harder than doing homework.  And it may seem small, but I'm glad I did it.  I offered fresh zucchini from my garden to my neighbors. Background story.... our neighbors and our family don't really get along.  I always have the thought, I need to be more Christlike, and it's hard.  Today, when driving home after gardening (with 8 LARGE zucchini in the back seat). I was dropping them off at friend's houses and a thought came to me. "I should offer some to the neighbors." (our other neighbors brought us fresh peaches and tomatoes yesterday).  I definitely didn't want to do this, but knew I had too.  It was something so small. So I pulled in the car port and first thing I did was walk over to the neighbors and offered them zucchini. I had to do it right when I got home or else I would chicken out. They said they didn't like it so they declined, but I did it.

I did something hard. But it was the right thing to do.  Sometimes things in life are hard, but we need to do them.  The husband explained to me last night, that without challenges in life things don't grow.  He was right. We learn from the challenges in life, though they may be hard, it will make us stronger.

I am My Hair

I am my hair. For most of my life my hair has defined me. I'm the girl with long (sometimes super long) brown hair. I don't know if I necessarily hid behind my hair. But I do think it defined me. And I was okay with that. Sometimes I wanted a "Big" change. So I would slightly change the color, add highlights or even bangs. But I still kept my long hair. That was until recently.

Last week I chopped my hair off. Literally.  About 14 inches off. Gone. No more buns. No more ponytails. No French braids. Why would a woman who loves her long hair just cut it off. Love. Love is the reason.

Three times now I've had the privilege to donate my hair to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is an organization that gives wigs to people under 21 who suffer from hair loss for medical reasons. (www.locksoflove.org)  Love is the reason I donate. Its the reason I can go through the anxiety of cutting my hair. It's knowing that I am giving my hair up so a child doesn't have to go without.

Here are two amazing women in my life.  Both are breasr cancer survivors.  Both lost their hair during their treatments. And both have such courage. Here are their stories:

"I never wore a wig while I was going through treatments and was bald because I just wore scarves and hats, but I know that there are several women who I met who never would have had the confidence to leave their homes while going through treatments and being bald if it weren't for their wigs. So I think donating to Locks of Love is Awesome.  I donated my hair about 4 years ago and my daughter donated hers about 2 years ago. It made me feel good to know that I was helping someone else out in some small way. :) " - A.M.

"Donated hair is a huge deal to me.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer in Aug 2010.  After my second chemo treatment, my hair fell out and wigs were a part of my life for the next eight months.  I kept working full time at my office and did my best to look presentable.  My favorite wig was made of human hair and was very close to my natural color and shoulder length.  Each time I would go to my chemo treatment, the drugs would make me very sleepy, so I would take off my wig so I wouldn't mess it up.  If someone was new in the chemo room who never saw me before, they would gasp and say..."Oh, I thought that was your real hair."  I loved it when someone would have that reaction.

MJ is a very special person with beautiful hair.  I'm so proud of her for giving such a great gift." -W.R.

As women I believe we let our hair define us.  Redheaded woman. Curly haired girl. The girl with long brown hair. But really, it's our spirits that should define us. In my anxiety before cutting I mentioned to my husband. "What if I don't love myself with short hair?" He reminded me that I teach young women every week that it's not what we look like that matters if we love ourselves. It's who we truly are.  Our Heavenly Father loves us and we love him. It doesn't matter the length of our hair, what our body shape is or how fancy we dress.  This statement is always true. Our Heavenly Father will always love us. We just need to remember this.  So next time you look in the mirror and wish something was different about yourself, remember, your Heavenly Father loves you just the way you are right at that moment. Never forget that!

PS. I like the short hair. Just need to learn how to do short hair. :)

Tender Mercies

Do you ever have those moments where everything just "coincidently" works out in your favor.
You make it to to the gas station right as your gas light turns on.
You find your keys still in your door the next morning after you forgot them there the night before.
You were running five minutes late, and pass an accident that happened five minutes early.
Or tonights, decided to drive the husband's car to activities which just happened to have a key to the church on it.  And as I pulled up, all the youth were waiting outside because no other leader had a key.

I don't believe that these things "just happen" or are only a "coincidence."  Yes, I believe in coincidences, like when my cousin and I happen to wear pretty much the same outfit every time we are together.  It just happens. But some things don't "just happen."

There's something bigger out there, something divine. Heavenly Father is the divine reason for these "coincidences." But I like to think of them as His tender mercies. He's looking out for us, even if it's just a thought to take a different car to church. It's the tender mercies in life that help us see the bigger picture and there is some divine out there looking over us.

I'm grateful for this tender mercy that was a little reminder of the blessings I have in life.

How have you been blessed by tender mercies. I would love to hear from you.

This video says it all and so much more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B4El4B9LVw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hungry Baby

Disclaimer: You might think I'm really weird after reading this post. You were warned. ;)

Today for lunch I had baby food. Full fledged baby food from the hard you find in the baby section of the grocery store. You may be asking yourself why in the world would this sane woman (mostly sane) eat baby food of her own choice?  Well let me tell you.

I was working on a craft project (DYI tutorial coming next week) and needed jars. Cute little jars. I only had canning jars which were to big. I went to the grocery store to get other supplies and looked down the Tupperware aisle for containers. For the 4 I was looking for,  it was about $3 for some containers. I had passed the baby aisle on my way and more my thoughts turned there. Might as well look.

Well,  baby food was on sale 2/$1.00. Cheaper than Tupperware and cuter in my opinion and glass. So much better!  Do I bought some Apple pear banana sauce to get my jars.

Instead of tossing out the food,  I was going to send it home with a friend who has s ten month old. (Side note: I ate one in the way home to try it. I've had to eat it before in a minute to win it competition at s family reunion.  also,  my bff loves to eat banana baby food. So it's not that bad) so in a Tupperware it went. I then proceeded to make my craft (So excited to share it)  this morning I got up to make my lunch and wasn't really feeling making a sandwich when I remembered the food. So I grabbed it and packed it away. It tasted like Apple sauce with a little twist (the banana)  but it wasn't weird.

So the point of this story besides I am a weird duck.... I needed containers and found a way to save a little money by looking at all my options (Plus it gave me lunch)

Sunbeams are Crazy!

On Sundays I sit with the Sunbeams. Sunbeams are 3 years olds turning 4. Usually I just sit with them during singing time. But this week at church I volunteered (remember that part) to teach them because their teacher wasn't there.  They are pretty good during singing time; just have to remind them that we keep our hands to ourselves.  And 3-4 is such a cute age, right?  I was wrong.

First was a bathroom pit stop where children proceeded to climb on the toilets, look over and under the stalls, take WAY too much soap and make too much noise that should ever be had in a church bathroom.  This lesson was off to a not so reverent start.

Pause for a minute.... I have substituted the sunbeams before, different congregation though. So I thought I knew what I was getting into.... nothing too hard to handle after years of babysitting. Okay, un-pause.

After potty break we went to our class.  I decided to skip the drinking fountain, too much to handle with all these 3 and 4 years olds. (There were 6 total.... 5 boys and 1 girl).  So off to a tiny classroom we went.  

For some reason I thought that the kids would sit quietly, or somewhat quietly during a lesson. Nope, I was wrong.  I must be used to my 14-18 year old girls I usually teach.  The children made loud noises all class, got in each other's bubbles ( a little too much not keeping their hands to themselves), eating paper, opening the drawers, crawling under the counters..... and so much more.  At one point I felt what I believe every mother feels, and now sunbeam teachers feel... A moment where I thought "I give up. I can't control these kids. I give up."

We did have a short lesson about families. Now if any of that actually made it to the heads, who knows.  But I tried. We sang songs, we tried to get our wiggles out, and well it was an adventure to say the least.   I now understand why it takes 2 adults in that class usually.  And I will most likely think twice before volunteering on my own.  

I still think that the sunbeam age is still a cute age, just maybe not 6 of them all in the same room at one time.  But what an adventure I had at church that day. (Too bad we didn't have dino nuggets.)