Food-aholic

Last night I decided to make dinner for the family, because I knew no one else was going to. However, this bothered me none at all, because I love cooking, especially after switching to the vegetarian life. And after an intense hour and a half work-out at the gym, I was ready to eat, and my body craved natural. On the way home from the gym I thought of all the things I could make and decided by the time I got home to make a variety of enriching, protein pumped foods. Since I already knew how to whip up a tasty butternut squash, I choose that, along with boiled & seasoned potatoes, brown rice, (in which I sprinkled kosher salt, pepper, and squeezed some fresh lemon), and a spring mix salad. The meal was amazing, and as I chatted with my parents and sister, we concluded how nice it was to be able to eat healthy, quality food in the comfort of our home, rather than over-priced, who-knows-whats-in-the food, crummy atmosphere a restaurant would provide. And how nice it was. I have been valuing family time a lot more recently, and have been taking turns with Shannon to make dinner for the family. I give my job, (mainly my old boss Lisa), the credit for my beginning, yet proficient cooking skills. I didn't take many pictures of the food, but here's one of the salad:

spring salad mix, red & green bell peppers, w/ chopped mushroom, tofu, garlic, and sun dried tomatoes. The "dressing" was balsamic with some olive oil and kosher salt.  

This past weekend I focused a lot of my attention on doing my best and doing better than my best. This, I feel, is the only way I'll ever become a better cook, a better employer, a better me. Another thing I thought about over dinner last night was how much I want to become a better me. I want Christ to shine through me, and I want to use His gifts He's given me. If God has given me the ability to cook, then be golly, I'll cook. If He's given me the ability to be in college at this age, then by golly, I will study my heart out and focus totally in all my classes. My goal for this semester is to catch whatever is thrown at me. We'll see.


More to come,

-R

Weekend Update, Who's Listening?

In my last post, I was going through a very large, confusing, ugly, and just plain hectic state of mind. You can imagine my excitement of climbing back up to Idywilld this weekend. We went up on Saturday, and returned earlier to-day. It was great to get away from my small town, to another small town with better scenery. I was able to relax and relax and relax when I wasn't working, and it was so nice. Shannon and I decided to spend our free time watching some random movies I brought with us, (Into The Wild, Charade, and Casino Royale.) Our time in Idy was spent very well, and admittedly much needed. We had a lot of time to talk about a whole bunch of things, such as future plans. I'm glad to have her as my sister; my best friend. Our time we've spent together just allows us to grow closer so much the more. I'm so looking forward to a lot of things God might possibly have in store for us in our futures. And I enjoy talking about the future when it looks like there might be a perfect opportunity; we'll see.
I've been realizing a lot lately that I really need to start looking at the future. Oh, how nice it is to have reachable goals, and how nice it is that I come closer and closer to reaching said goals. However, it is all up to the omnipotent, all-knowing God. I am willing with all that I am to go where He leads me, that question is, where to? I don't have the answer to that right now. All I know is where I am; here and now. I am a full-time student with a part-time job,with hardly enough room to play with the neighbourhood kids. I spend a lot of my time wondering and pondering questions; over analyzing every situation. I pass up opportunities to hang out with friends to study for a test. I am a caged bird, waiting to be set free and fly. I want to fly, and will the first chance I get. But...in the meantime, I will continue to go to school five days a week and work all of weekends that I'm offered. We'll see how this semester goes. I hope I don't lose myself, rather find myself more than the last five months. The only way I can find myself is to study the Bible; to study the inspired words of God. He will guide me, lead me, give me the strength and discernment I'll need to survive in this dying world.

My Omnipresent Saviour

To-day was a very relaxed and laid-back sort of day, and very needed. I believe that every once in a while a day of rest is surely crucial, allowing an opportunity to reboot the said system of the human body. So to-day was my rebooting day. It consisted of waking up at 12 noon, relaxing to a bowl of oatmeal with mixed berries, then browsing on the internet for a nice, healthy dinner recipe. Around three I had my "lunch", in which I indulged in whole-wheat soy pancakes with again, mixed berries. So. Good! For my topping, I drizzled organic agave nectar across the cakes. Writing about them now makes me crave them! After I had my pancakes, I decided to clean the kitchen for a feel-good environment to cook dinner in. I started with the dishes, moved to the counters, stove, and last the floor. This took me a while, but afterwards I started dinner. Dinner went very well, might I add. I decided on butternut squash soup along with an interesting pick of a salad I experimented on. Kaitlin, you would have been proud of this meal. Here are some photos I took: (however, be aware I was not able to saver the taste in these pics;)

thyme has an amazing aroma!

the bulk of the meal:

the end result of the soup

salad

The salad was a great counter balance to the meal, and sat well with the stomachs of those who engulfed it. I aimed high for a healthy salad, because more than often, what may appear to be a "healthy" salad, is really "healthy" in disguise. First, I sprinkled this salad with kosher salt, squeezed on some lime, cut up an orange to compliment it, and used my left over avocado and the rest of my tofu. This resulted in an intense and flavorful, greeny salad. To tie up this meal, I had made my famous sweet tea. This meal screamed energy, which is why I think it would be a better fit for lunch sometime, rather than dinner. However it was light and didn't make me feel like a balloon, yet still giving me the feeling of being full. Thank God for non-processed, delicious food!

Facebook.

I have had a love-hate, (mostly the latter), relationship with facebook for the past year. This has caused me to deactivate my account on several occasions. However, I decided enough is enough; lately I cannot take it. I deactivated my account, I pray for the last time. When deactivating it, I choose the option "other", my reason was stated as this, "I am tired of the contradiction of a "social network." Being social and interacting requires physicality. Facebook cannot offer me that." I hope that I will be able to stick it out. If anyone truly wants to chat with me, I'd be more than obliged to set up a time and place to encounter true and meaningful interaction. Many of you already know how much I do not agree with "social networks". When I fully weigh my options of being a part of such a wide online world or not, I always result in saying "No, I really do not need to be a part of it. I can be more beneficial without it." I also feel the major need to apply more of my time to my school studies, rather than reading up on utter meaningless statuses. So, for now and hopefully forever, I will being parting my ways with the facebook world.

More to come,
-R

Clean and Clear

Where to start off? I guess I'll start by saying this terrible excuse for a week ended up pretty good starting from Friday. I was immensely bored from Wednesday-late Saturday. However, I cannot thank God enough for what He gave me; making up for a really boring and lonely week. What I didn't realize, until Saturday night, was that God allowed me a few days by myself to evaluate my life and get caught up in my devotions. I unconsciously evaluated my life which still freaks my mind. I realized many things that make me annoyed; and things I need to let go. For instance, there are many pseudo-Christians out there, and much hypocrisy that lies behind their actions. And I know that there is NO way I can justify my hypocrisy by looking at other's lives. I need to look at my own life; judge MYself and MY actions. I also realized I just need to worry about certain parts of my relationship with God, instead of trying to pry into other's personal life. I do have a bad habit of that which is something I'm gladly working on. That was just a biggie I realized, and another big thing I saw was how I was called on earth to live a certain way; to live as Christ, to die is gain. but to "live as Christ" gets so utterly twisted the majority of the time. To live as Christ lived is to be humble. It's to serve and not worry about always being served. It is also to be in a constant loving state, even when we're wronged; when we're mocked; when we're ditched by our "friends", and the likes. So, next time I ask God to, "help me to love as Christ loved", what I understand that I'm really asking is, "God please be my stronghold, when I can no longer stand from the treacheries and pain life and the world daily brings; help me to praise you in the most dangerous storm. and give me the faith that You are the beholder of all."
So, yes, I had a lot of time, many hours, to talk to God and to think; to ponder. I no longer want to live my life for myself. I want to live it for God; only God; the One. Saturday morning I met up with my lovely friend, Michelle, at yoga. It was very relaxing and stress-relieving. I love yoga and my yoga instructor. Afterwards, I asked Michelle is she wanted to watch the sunset that night, and she said of course. And for this I was glad. The word glad was exactly how I felt. I thought as I walked to my car, "After not having anyone to hang out with this week God, You managed to find me someone. Thank You." However, last night there was no sunset due to the overcast, so Shannon, Michelle and I went to Starbucks and talked for hours. It. Was. Amazing. Does anything ever just make your heart jump because it makes you so happy? Or the feeling of floating on clouds? That's precisely how I feel when I am in a philosophical conversation with another intelligent human being; that is exactly how I felt all night with the girls. We started at five in the evening, and finished talking around ten, so I imagine how amazing our conversations went considering how much time we used to talk about things pertaining to the important aspects in life. I could go on and on about our night, but I'm leaving for church soon so I'll move on. (Best night I've had in a while, no doubt!)
To-day I decided to be very productive and rearrange/ clean my neglected room. It went very well, and now I feel very clean, from the spiritual cleansing last night, and from this entire day of cleaning my room. I'm in the very sluggish process of re-doing and decorating it. Mainly right now I'm looking for cheap black bed sheets and a curtain rod, since mine is barely in commission. But alas, I am being patient and put it low on the priority list. I'm just grateful that God helped me be very productive to-day, seeing as I did not have a lot of sleep last night;  my doing, of course though. Here are some photos I took of my room .In my opinion they didn't turn out very well. One thing you can tell is that my room is very blue. I didn't get to pick any of the colors or anything, I just made do with what I had;)

before

before

after

after

clean mirror!

 There you have it, a couple of great days in one blog. More to come,
-R

Humor Me, Mr. Mail Man

To-day, my mind was filled with boredom due to the unfortunate circumstances of my fellow friendlies. Long story short, Atumn was stuck in the snow, Hannah went back to school, and Shannon was as sick as a dog. So this left me to play by myself all day. I indulged in a random set of activities, which included thus: my morning devotions, three cups of tea, (which were drunken sporadically throughout the day), countless games of losing miserably at solitaire with real, live cards, (not the computer), and two walks to the mail box, (which shall be expanded more later). Devotions were great this morning, and such a way to start the day. After that, I played nurse for my sister because I know how much I utterly despise being sick. So, after taking care of her, many games of losing solitaire, and eating a home-grown salad with homemade dressing, I decided I would go walk to the mail box, taking dog with me since he insisted on not leaving my side to-day. As dog and I walked down the street, we admired the amazing sunset, however I did not care to bring my camera, due to laziness, so I just took it in for myself. Arriving at said destination, I was disappointed to see there was no Netflix for me, and was too sad to notice I had three letters to me in the pile. Walking back solemnly, I noticed one of those three letters was an envelope I had been waiting for, for months. Ecstatic I walked home faster. However, on this particular envelope, there was also a message from my mail man rubber-banded to it. I found this humorous. Mr. Mail Man fined me $0.34. I don't necessarily know what happened, but my guess is that the envelope, which beheld the flash drive I had been waiting for, only had two stamps, perhaps it needed three? Contrariwise, the attached envelope told me to insert the amount due into it, then send it back in the mail box.

My $0.34

Signed by yours truly, Mr. Mail Man

Humor.

On the back of the envelope, they reminded me of this. However, what they didn't know was that I walked, not drove.

Congratulations, Mr. Mail Man. You have suckered $0.34 from my pocket, and are now on your way to earning that Caramel Macchiato w/ soy, with only $3.31 to go, which means you only need to collect from about nine more citizens. $0.34 seems like nothing to me, and I was almost too lazy to do it, but it sure does add up. None the less, keep doing your job Mr. mail Man. A random thought has occurred, not just to my mail man, but to everyone: fill up that piggy bank and save up, seeing as gas will be going up to $4 per gallon this year. Disgusting, but that's the world we live in to-day.
On a brighter note, the other two letters I received were Get Well cards from my relatives in the East. Much appreciated to get these on a gloomy and boring day such as to-day.

Though I didn't sleep in until noon, I have gotten 10-12 hours of sleep per night since surgery(:

A picture, which came with the letter, that my second youngest cousin colored. This made me smile(:

This blog has been filled with silliness and such, but I felt the urge to write...something...anything...school's been out for two weeks now, give me a break(:
More to come, soon,
-R